Code Geass-Let Me Share the Burden
by Nemesis13
Summary: A technological breakthrough in the early 1980s instigates an imperial decree, all royal children must undergo prenatal genetic engineering to ensure a perfect ruling class. What happens when a vindictive immortal is put in charge and causes one Empresses child to have a twin, and how will this sister change his fate?- Epilogue up folks, mwahaha can't wait for the sequal
1. Chapter 1

_**Author Note 6/11/2014-Letting new readers know that at the beginning of writing this story I hadn't actually written anything extensive for nearly twelve years, so please don't mind the early chapter wonkiness it gets better as I taught myself how to properly weave a story again. There are formatting errors and some typos throughout and I apologize for that, I just hope you can enjoy the story.**_

A brief explanation: So while writing my other story 'I Remembered Tomorrow Today' I had a thought on Lelouch's general attitude and how its effected by his environment. Simply put the Lelouch in that story already had his answers, knew of the betrayals and was well aware of how to make the world his plaything while still accomplishing his goals and having fun. In canon Lelouch is cold, distant, and arrogant mostly due to the fact that he is surrounded by people who are no where near as smart as he is so no one can really call him on his BS unless he is actively going down to their level, add being saddled with a crippled kid sister you have one cynical young man. So my idea this time around was what if he had someone there his entire life who was just as sharp as he was, just as protective of Nunnally, but was just different enough to consistently smack his ego down. Simply put he'd still be the same charismatic and brilliant strategist but the more glaring personality flaws would be tempered and his journey would not be so lonely and...paranoid. I also discovered that there is an entire community revolving around Lelouch being a female named 'Luluko' so I decided to roll with that being his twin sister and partner in crime, although my auto correct keeps changing it to "Luluka' which I happen to like more so you all will just have to deal with that, without further ado I give you-_**Code Geass-Let Me Share the Burden**_

_**Edit 4/23/2014-Slowly going back and reformatting older chapters, its a bit rough but easier to read, enjoy.**_

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_**Excerpt from the Britannia Journal of Medical Science, circa October 2, 1980 A.T.B.**_

_Dr. Alius ZImmerman of the Pendragon Institute of Medicine has recently announced a breakthrough in nanobot induced genetic alteration and physiological enhancing implants to a stunned scientific community. No other parties were aware of the development of such cutting edge and morally questionable technologies but there are very few questioning the viability of these new breakthroughs, it is speculated that the project may have been authorized by the Emperor himself as shortly after the announcement he ordered all future royal offspring to receive the benefits of implants and gene alteration..._

_**Pendragon: Undisclosed office inside N.B.D January 27, 2000 A.T.B**_

V.V was for lack of a better word, furious, no scratch that he was absolutely livid, not only was Charles shifting his attentions to that _whore_ he had regulated V.V. to be custodian of the Nobility Bio-engineering Division. An insult if there was ever one, his job was to sift through each embryos DNA and make sure they didn't come out retarded, hoo-bloody-ray, and as if the job wasn't tedious enough royal decree from Charles predecessor demanded fertilization had to occur naturally. So his days were spent overseeing Charles tramps, playing an over glorified gynecologist, removing their stupid feeble embryos, cleaning up their garbage DNA and implanting them back into said tramps, it was vexing to say the least.

Sighing to himself wondering for the tenth time in the past hour what on Earth he had done to earn this he looked through today's itinerary,

"Lets see, slut, bimbo, floozy, another slut, and..._THE_ fucking whore...interesting". V.V. tapped his fingertips together in contemplation while staring at the scan, all told the child to be had promise, very little wrong with this one actually, as hard as it was to admit she and Charles had produced an excellent specimen. Pity. Mulling the idea of making the kid blind or having sickle cell anemia he had to remember that the end result would reflect directly on him, and if nothing else his ego demanded that he not make an inferior product. So that begged the question, how could he strike back at the uppity commoner harlot without it coming back at him and further the distance between he and Charles...

"Hmm...well... Marianne _was_ discussing how she was worried about gaining weight and stretch marks from the pregnancy, and the amount of calories she has to consume for the implants to develop in the embryo are staggering..." Eyes widening at his idea he double checked the scans and grinned wickedly, oh yes this could work, it was petty, childish and beautifully enough untraceable. The short term pain he would cause that woman would be worth any reproach from Charles anyway, making the proper tweaks to the embryo he hit "Apply Changes" and leaned back with a smile, this ought to be fun.

_**Pendragon: Palace Aries Residence 3 months later**_

"TWINS?!" Lady Marianne screamed for what Emperor Charles Vi Britannia believed was the sixth time in as many minutes, he sighed inwardly then looked towards his beloved consort, and did his best to keep his composure.

"Yes my dear, again, twins, the first in the past fifty years actually, you should be honored." She spun around and glared at him with pure malice, 'Oh shit' he thought, wrong thing to say. She stalked forward and stared him directly in the eyes,

"I. Am. A. Knight. Of. The. Round. Table. I am a fighter and a one child pregnancy would have been difficult enough to maintain my duties, but two at once?! I'll be a whale!" she bellowed.

'Ah...yes her concerns about her figure..this is not going to be pretty' he mused, secretly he cursed V.V. for somehow botching the procedure. As if Marianne was reading his mind she threw her hands in the air and continued to rant,

"I bet that creepy little hobgoblin had a hand in this, his obsession with not sharing you gets more intense as time rolls on, its weird hon admit it!" Charles scowled and was prepared to defend his brother but staring at her enraged violet eyes he decided that it probably wouldn't be worth it, especially since he shared her suspicions. Sighing he took her into his embrace and lowered his face into her hair and inhaled her scent, she relaxed against him as he soothed her,

"My dear, it will only be for six more months, after that you may resume your regular duties." He paused contemplating something then asked "Would it appease you if we have another down the line I make sure V.V. isn't involved in the development?" Marianne considered this briefly then nodded on his chest.

'Booyah' he thought to himself, crisis averted.

_**Pendragon: Royal Family Hospital September 13, 2000 A.T.B**_

V.V. was giddy, after the birth of 11th Prince Lelouch Vi Britannia and 3rd Princess Luluka Vi Britannia Lady Marianne had gained over thirty pounds in excess weight. Nine months was a long time to wait for petty revenge but when you're immortal its the little things in life that keep you going, grinning like a madman the diminutive man child observed the raven haired violet eyed twins in their bassinets. 'Odd, most children don't open their eyes this soon', V.V. had the unsettling feeling that the newborns were somehow observing him, somehow...judging him. Shaking off the creepy feeling he spun on his heel and left the maternity ward, 'Whatever, mission accomplished lets see if brother still loves that whore now that she's fat'.

_**Pendragon: Palace Aries Residence November 3, 2003 A.T.B.**_

Three year old Luluka was excited, almost as excited as her brother Lelouch, while she didn't fully understand the process she did understand the end result, today she would have a little sister. The twin toddlers ran to their mothers room with more coordination then any child should have, but that was just normal for them, they could do anything together and the odd bond that none of the big people believed ment they were never alone either. Making eye contact with her brother she thought,

'Knock Knock!', Lelouch smiled as he activated his implants broadcast protocols,

'Who's there!', their little ritual complete she grinned back,

'What do you think her name is?'

Lelouch looked thoughtful for a moment then shrugged 'I dunno, but whatever it is I'm sure it will be pretty', approving the answer Luluka turned the corner and saw a group of big people and sighed

'Ok we gotta act like dumb kids and talk out loud for them'. Lelouch looked irritated then said,

"I really hate acting dumb", Luluka could only agree, sadly most three year olds were learning to not eat crayons much less hold thoughtful conversations, best to blend in. Approaching the door the twins looked to the guards and stated in unison "See baby!", the guard laughed at the childish statement and let them in, both doing their best to not roll their eyes they ran up to their tired mother who looked a bit too thin to be healthy but still radiated happiness.

"Lelouch, Luluka, I'd like you to meet your little sister, 5th Princess Nunnally."

The giggling children rushed up to their new sibling and made cooing noises to the slumbering newborn nestled in her mothers arms, both showing complete adoration for the new addition. Luluka laughed and turned to Lelouch,

"You were right brother, it was a pretty name" nodding sagely Lelouch continued to stare at the little form,

"We gotta make sure she stays safe, always". The twins made a mental agreement to protect their little sister at all costs and lady Marianne basked in the glory of it all,

'Lost 5 pounds in this pregnancy on top of the 30 from last' she grinned broadly 'Suck it V.V.'.

_**Pendragon: Palace Aries Residence July 6, 2009 A.T.B**_

Lelouch felt pain, the indescribable pain and regret rushing through his mind startled him to wakefulness and caused him to panic, which for Lelouch meant waking his favorite guard Jerry and screaming,

"MY SISTER IS HURT!" Lelouch liked Jerry alot, he never talked down to him and his sisters and he actually believed him when he explained his connection to Luluka, that unfortunately meant he started freaking out. Grabbing his radio he contacted Lelouch's big sister Cornelia and told her to bring the troops in the royal family was in danger, they then rushed out into the main hall to see...horror. His sisters were sprawled on the stairs, pinned beneath their bloodied mother, before Lelouch could move forward machine gun fire blasted through the front windows and sprayed down the entire area. Jerry being Jerry grabbed Lelouch and threw him down to the ground, both noticing that the fire was aimed everywhere BUT at the downed royals.

The fire ended abruptly but they lay prone for another minute, seemingly all clear they rushed down to his injured family, grabbing his mother Lelouch frantically shook her "Mother, Mother!" but alas, he could tell she was dead...and cold...why is she already cold? Jerry rolled mom off his sisters to see that Luluka was passed out with three gun shots stitched up her side, he could see that her implants were already regenerating her flesh and she was breathing evenly. Before he could turn to Nunnally he heard Jerry sob, looking quickly he could see she had been shot repeatedly in the stomach and her eyes were staring off into space, "No No No we were supposed to protect you, no...no..". Jerry put his arm around Lelouch and tried to comfort him,

"My lord...have faith her implants are working on overdrive to keep her alive and the ambulance is almost here, she will survive," wiping away tears the young prince scowled.

"Yes...yes you are correct she will...she has to.." Lelouchs analytical mind pushed through the sorrow long enough to scan the room and take in all the details. This...none of this makes sense, I've read enough coronary books to know the human body takes hours to cool...mothers bloody is already coagulated but his sisters was still warm, then there was those machine guns...it didn't make sense. "Jerry...what exactly just happened here?" Jeremiah Gottwald gazed upon the room as well and muttered,

"I may be out of line here my lord but...this was no work of terrorists", at this Lelouch only nodded grimly while still applying pressure to his sisters wounds.

"That's why I like you Jerry, you're just as paranoid as I am."

_**Pendragon: Royal Family Hospital 24 hours later**_

Luluka was rather cross at the moment, being shot while trying to protect your kid sister from a maniac midget then having your dead mother thrown on top of you will do that, the weirdest part of the whole situation is that she distinctly recalled her Father telling her she was to believe some insane tripe about terrorists. It was all so muddied, none of it made sense and the two scenarios kept warring in her mind for dominance, if she were to be honest if Lelouch hadn't kept a standing vigil in her mind she probably would have gone insane.

'I think your mind was somehow altered' her brother said 'nothing at the crime scene adds up, Jerry and I showed up far earlier then we would have otherwise since your pain awoke me and I rose the alarm'. Luluka pondered this for a second then responded,

'I have the strangest feeling we inadvertently mucked up someones scheming' she received a feeling of agreement as she continued 'Lou...I'm scared'. Her brother remained silent for a moment too long,

'I...I am too, there is so much wrong with this, did you know mother called off the guard a few hours beforehand? Cornelia is beside herself in grief, she feels she has failed but I saw the order myself, in mothers handwriting.' Luluka digested that for a moment,

'Pardon my language brother but why the bloody hell would she do that?' His response was agitated

'I have no clue, her enemies are lining up to try and take apart her entire network of allies, this is feeling more and more like a setup, I did manage to throw a wrench in their machinations by the way, released the Ashfords from their vows and publicly declared our disassociation'. She actually laughed out loud at that one immediately regretting it with the wracking pain,

'Oh nice one, they'll be damaged politically but they'll still retain their titles and investments' she received a responding shade of cockiness,

'Indeed.' After a moments awkward silence,

'Any news on Nunnally?' she finally asked the question she dreaded the answer to, but his response was surprising,

'She'll likely make a full recovering, her spine had been severed by the bullet fragments but her regenerative implants were able to keep her stable enough for surgery, the weird part is shes...blind'. Luluka gasped at this,

'Wait what? How?' that makes no sense she wasn't hit in the head,

'How indeed, doctors say its psychological trauma but...well just like everything else from last night it makes no sense at all, Jerry by the way is ready to shoot any noble who comes near this wing aside from the Li Britannia's, you were right about him he's a keeper'.

'Good man, now what do we do?' Lelouch sent a wave of bitterness through their link,

'I'm going to attempt to talk to father, for some reason he has called off the investigation and I want answers', oh hell, not good.

'Lelouch don't do anything rash, please'. A none committal noise was all she heard, 'Lelouch I'm serious you do anything stupid like renouncing your inheritance or flipping off the nobility I will personally kick your ass' Lelouch's grouchy response of,

'Yeah yeah ok' was all she got before he severed the connection. Oh bloody wonderful.

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Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and yes I did purposely make Marianne and Charles amusing in their own thoughts, I find the idea hilarious for some reason


	2. Chapter 2

**Reformated 4/26/2014**

_**Pendragon: Emperor of Britannias Throne Room July 7, 2009 A.T.B.**_

As the throne room doors opened and he was announced to his father Lelouch stalked down the stairs in anger, then he noticed the dozens of royals and nobles in the room...not good. Opening a link to his sister he thought 'Knock Knock, I'm letting you hear and see what I'm looking at', his sisters response was simple

'Do not do ANYTHING rash Lelouch, you're angry and I know it but be smart here'. Sighing Lelouch walked the rest of the distance ignoring the condescending smiles and thinly veiled amusement from the leaches of society

'Oh how I hate them sister, out of the hundreds at court I can stand maybe four of them'.

'Yes well you're almost to father so ditch the scowl and be prepared', Lelouch stopped in front of his father and announced

"Hail your royal majesty, I bear grave news, my mother the Empress Marianne is dead!"

The Emperor stared down at him for a moment then stated

"Why have you brought me old news?" The twins both visibly recoiled from that "You came before your emperor for that? Send in the next one." Shaking in rage Lelouch was about to scream about him not even visiting his injured sisters when Luluka spoke up

'Calm down and tell him about the setup, be creative dear brother.' Lelouch took a deep brother and looked back up to his father

"Your highness may I approach the throne", at this Charles raised an eyebrow and motioned him forth, this ought to be interesting. Stopping at the foot of the stairs Lelouch continued "I wish to discuss why you called off the investigation when it was obviously someone from the imperial court who murdered my mother and maimed my sisters".

To say that caused a stir would be an understatement, the murmuring in the room was almost universally appalled that he would do something as faux pas as stating the obvious, the Emperor though was curious what his son thought he knew.

"Oh indeed? Indulge me then." His son continued to surprise him by smiling viciously

"Where shall I start? The fact that when the 'Terrorists' shot up the reception room my sisters had already been shot and strategically placed underneath my dead mother? Or the fact that my mother had obviously been dead for hours due to rigamortis and her coagulated blood pool? Or the fact that it was obvious someone shot Nunnally repeatedly with a pistol to break her spine despite the weapon used in the attack were rifles?" Taking a deep breath he continued "Despite the fact that all my mothers allies were put on the defensive and attacked before her body was even bagged? I'm sorry father I may only be ten years old but I know a setup when I see one".

The room was silent, no one dared utter a word, except of course for Lelouch, because at this point he was legitimately beyond caring "That begs the question which one of these 'noble' people murdered my mother and tried to destroy my family and associates?" The Emperor stared down at him and stated

"Your sisters have...lost much value to me my son" the acknowledgment of Lelouch as his son stunned the crowd "Yet you...you may still have some worth, I am in the need of a pawn to placate Japan, you will be that pawn". Lelouch stared dumbstruck when Luluka prodded him

'Don't refuse it just try to bring us along, its dangerous here' shaking his head he responded

"I will do this only if I may bring my sisters with me." Charles stared down at him then asked

"And if I refuse?", Lelouch smirked back

"You won't my dear father simply because you are aware that a willing servant is more useful then a resentful slave."

The chattering had stopped completely and the crowd stared at Lelouch in shock, then of all things the Emperor _laughed_, several loud harsh barks before he turned back to his son, smiling

"Lelouch...you...you have surprised me, you may one day be of even greater use to me. You may take your sisters and a retainer with you, do your best to serve Britannia, my son". With that Lelouch was dismissed, turning around he got one last message from his sister

'Give 'em the creepy smile brother' Lelouch chuckled and gave the crowd what Cornelia had dubbed his "Slasher Smile" and walked out of the throne room to tell Jerry to pack.

_**In Transit over the Pacific one week later**_

Jeremiah Gottwald was still in a state of shock, when his young lord had returned from his audience with the Emperor he had been prepared for the worst, what he had not been prepared for was a cheerful Lelouch asking him if he would be his Knight of Honor. He'd gladly accepted in surprise then found out about the excursion to Japan, which honestly upset him at first before it was broken down for him, his lord and ladies needed to get as far from the courts of Pendragon as possible. So that was why he was reading a still recovering Nunnally a magazine about horses while Lelouch and Luluka played chess, it was always intriguing to see the children play games of strategy, while their other opponents lasted ten minutes at best these two could play for hours and never have a clear victor.

Sighing in resignation Luluka stretched out

"Lou this is BORING! Lets play poker or black jack instead!" Jeremiah looked shocked

"My lady where did you learn to play such games?" The twins sounded off together

"Cornelia". Ah...no surprise there,

"Well then...shall I deal you two in?" They exchanged a grin then ran up to join him next to Nunnally, Jeremiah let out a happy laugh as he started shuffling the deck while he explained the rules of the game to Nunnally who could't play but want to participate. 'Some days' he thought to himself 'I truly love my job' and with that they wiled away the time till they landed in Tokyo.

_**Tokyo Japan, July 14 2009 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch walked down the ramp of their private plane following a still chuckling Jerry, apparently losing eight consecutive games of Texas Hold 'Em to a pair of ten year olds was amusing as hell to the young man. Looking around the airport Lelouch realized two things, first off all airfields looked the same and it was bloody HOT here, he was about to relay this to his twin when she undid the buttons on her collar fanning herself while muttering "bollocks". Ah, well hopefully the heat would be beneficial to Nunnally's recovery, she was already walking again with crutches and while she was complaining about headaches her vision was returning and regressing at seeming random.

As they gathered at the bottom of the ramp they saw a limousine approach from the terminal building, as it pulled up two figures stepped out, one a stern looking man and the other a young boy roughly Lelouch's age scowling at their party. Lelouch and Luluka approached the pair as he sent a thought

'bow to them but not too deeply, we're smaller so he'd have to get closer to the ground and it would be a grave insult' his sister sighed and responded

'I truly find the obsession men have for honor tedious'. Ignoring her comment Lelouch addressed the older man

"Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi, I am Lelouch Vi Britannia and these are my sisters Luluka and Nunnally, this fine gentleman is my Knight Jeramiah Gottwald, I like to call him Jerry", with that the twins and oddly enough Nunnally managed a respectable choreographed bow.

The stern man seemed to soften a tiny bit as he and the boy returned the the bow, he gestured to the child and stated

"This is my son, Suzaku Kururugi" the boy nodded "shall we get moving along?" Luluka smiled dazzlingly at Suzaku

"I'll sit next to the cutie!" She stated causing Lelouch to roll his eyes, Suzaku to blush, and Genbu to snort, she grabbed the now stuttering boy and dragged him to the limo. Lelouch made eye contact with Genbu and shrugged sheepishly

"Well at least it will be an interesting visit no?" Genbu's stare was becoming uncomfortable before the man cracked a smile and opened the limo door for Lelouch

"Young man the day you start understanding the fairer sex is the day you get committed to a psych ward", Jerry barked out a laugh and they moved on to the Kururugi Residence.

_**Kururugi Shrine, August 10, 2010 A.T.B**_

It had been a solid year since they had arrived in Japan and Luluka had to admit she was loving it, sure she missed her mother but as Jeremiah had said, "We can mourn the past but we cannot dwell on it". With Nunnally almost fully recovered the three siblings had taken up martial arts with Suzaku's sensei Tohdoh, Lelouch despised the physical activity but the idea of her being able to beat the hell out of him at will encouraged him to work hard. Genbu had started treating them all like extended family and even over ruled his witch of a wife on some of her more malicious attempts to make their lives difficult. And Suzaku...yeah she admitted it she was a bit smitten with the hard headed smart mouth, he was just so..._earnest_ especially when compared to her siblings back in Pendragon. With a pang she remembered the homeland...and the news Jerry had brought them, they'd considered sitting on the information afraid it wold be considered treason but Nunnally won out and they warned the Kururugi's...Britannia was mobilizing for war.

Sighing sadly she continued her sparing with Suzaku,

"So Suzu, how do you think I'm doing thus far" As she took several swipes at him with the practice shoto, she had really learned to love the little short swords. Her partner laughed as he countered with the botan

"Way better then Lelouch that's for sure" as he said this they heard a muffled

"I bloody heard that!" from the house, they continued to laugh as Nunnally watched them happily. All things concerned life was good, if there hadn't been the impending invasion from her fathers bloody desire for conquest she could actually enjoy her existence out here, a cloud seemed to briefly cover the sky then she heard the sonic boom. With a start she looked up just in time to see the house explode, with Lelouch inside.

_**Undisclosed Location 30 seconds later**_

V.V. smiled in malicious victory, now that the spawn of that infernal woman were dead Charles would have to pay him his undivided attention, life was good.

_**Kururugi Shrine, August 10, 2010 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch vaguely wondered if this horrid pain was how mother felt in her last moments, he'd been lucky when the bomb hit, having just walked out the front door to go harass his friend and sisters when his life become chaos, fire, and wetness. Wetness? He tried lifting his left arm to wipe the offending fluid off his face while bracing himself with the right, but nothing happened, in confusion he looked down to see that his arm was...gone. Nearly his entire left arm had been pulverized and he stared at the bloody misshapen stump in abject horror. Well, it does explain why he was coated with blood, and with that

'Not good Not Good Not Good!' began screaming through his thoughts, apparently out loud because Luluka latched onto him

'BROTHER! Are you all right?' Without even thinking about it he sent her the image of his arm, he heard her shriek from the other side of the crater. Focusing Lelouch activated the prepared programs for his implants, he cut the blood vessels to the stump off and deactivated the nerve endings in that arm, with a sigh of bliss he stood up with the horrific pain becoming a dull ache.

Stumbling towards the wreckage of the house he yelled

"Suzaku, get over here we need to grab food, weapons, and get the hell out of here, that was a first strike fighter special forces could be here at anytime!" The group ran up to Lelouch and stopped in horror at the sight of his damaged limb, sighing in exasperation he continued "Yes yes my arm is blown up, Nunu grab as much canned food from the pantry as you can find and bag it, Lulu help Suzaku gather weapons, I know Genbu had an old Nambu pistol as well as his blade collection". Taking a breath while he ordered his implants to inject morphine he stumbled over to a damaged desk and pulled out an old piece of rice paper and a pen, turning to see the three still staring he screamed "GO NOW! WE HAVE FIVE MINUTES AND WE'RE GONE!", and with that the group dispersed. Lelouch spent the time writing the letter for his Knight and stuffing it back in the desk, he took out a pen knife and etched "L.B., L.B., N.B." on it in hopes the man could figure it out.

The group reassembled and Lelouch forced them to march out into the woods, when they were a few miles from the destroyed house he finally relented and let his family tend to his wound

"Oh Lou...what are we going to do with you?" Luluka sighed sadly. Lelouch just smiled

"Hey don't worry, this just gives me an excuse to get an awesome robot arm, bet I can even get it with racing stripes!" While he forced the enthusiasm the attempt at least made the other three smile, its not like it mattered with his Royal Grade implants he had absolute control over bodily functions, he was not going to die from blood loss or disease...it just hurt like hell. Turning to the pile of weapons he asked Suzaku "What do we have?", his friend turned and handed Lelouch the ancient Nambu

"You're a better shot with that then I am, found a pair of Shoto's for Lulu and a Naginita for Nunnally, I have my dads katana as well".

Lelouch smiled at this, oh yeah life sucked right now, his arm was gone, his temporary home had been blown up and he and his family were stuck in a war zone, but they were armed, they were motivated, he had a destination and they weren't in Pendragon. He felt safer already.


	3. Chapter 3

**Reformatted 4/26/2014, if I missed something PM please**

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_**Pendragon, Royal Throne Room Private Chambers August 10, 2010 A.T.B.**_

Charles Vi Britannia looked stoic as always on the outside, but on the inside he was frothing with rage, his brother, that little conniving leprechaun had attempted an elaborate hoax to murder his only true love then use it to destroy her name and children. To top it off it was such a convoluted plot that his ten year old son had figured out the majority of it on his own in an afternoon, if Marianne's spirit hadn't reminded him that he needed the back stabbing little shit for Ragnarök he would have already thrown him in a cage and kicked it into the ocean. Staying calm he kept staring at the monitor stewing in anger, the three pings that indicated the location of is children in Japan had gone silent.

This was the final nail for V.V.s coffin, he had sent the three to Japan to keep them safe from the traitor's jealousy but that wasn't good enough, V.V. had to push up the time table for the invasion while Charles slept and had ordered a random airstrike on a meaningless shrine in the wilderness. The shrine that had housed the only offspring he held any affection for, and they had all died in a fiery conflagration,

'Marianne' he thought out 'I do not know if I have the strength to not tear his face off with a vegetable pealer'. There was a pause then the reassuring presence of his wife entered his mind

'My love as much as it pains me to say this...we need the little bastard' she sighed then continued 'I know we'll see them again once we destroy God but...Charles?'. He sent a feeling of reassurance to the restless spirit to prompt her to continue 'When its time for him to die...let me do it, let me make him pay for killing my babies' out loud Charles chuckled

"My dear it will be my pleasure to allow you this honor".

_**Kururugi Shrine, August 11 2010 A.T.B.**_

Lord Jeramiah Gottwald openly gaped at the destroyed shrine that had been home for a year, the airstrike had been deliberate and precise, there was no doubt of that. Numbly dropping the bags of groceries he walked towards the still smoldering ruins, it had just turned midnight and visibility was terrible, luckily the trunk he kept his equipment in was still intact so he had a pistol and night vision goggles at least. He stopped to equip himself and continued his search, then he found...it, there smeared on the ground were bloody chunks of burnt flesh and what could only be a childs hand, he didn't know which it had belonged to, but it didn't matter he knew his failure. cradling the severed limb tears ran down his face as he silently lamented the loss.

Almost reverently placing the hand back on the ground Jeremiah entered the shattered home to continue his search, maybe...maybe one of them survived, it was a blind hope but one never the less. He began to loss that hope as he entered Genbu's drawing room, he had fond memories of this place, hours spent discussing politics with the Prime Minister over sake, he sighed sadly running his hand over the burnt desk when he noticed three initials messily carved into the fine oak. Gasping in realization he started tearing the drawers open until he found a folded note labeled 'Jerry', he opened it gently and read on in growing excitement:

_'Jerry, we were right had to be an inside job, we're all alive but I lost an arm, don't freak out i have it under control. Luluka already dumped a software package in your implants labeled "Hide and Seek", this will disable your IFF but open you to ours, do so and you can track us. We're making off with what food and weapons we can find and heading to Lord Ashfords estate in Tokyo, Rubin owes me one anyway, see you soon my knight_

_L.V.B'_

Smiling victoriously Lord Jeremiah stood in excitement and prepared to make after his prince when he heard rumbling in the distance, quickly exiting the ruin Jeremiah saw an APC and two Glasgow's approaching the desecrated shrine. Hiding behind a flipped car he cycled his radio through military frequencies until he got a hit

"-_nd Lord V.V. has also stated that the soldier who successfully ends the Vi Britannia line will be given a lordship, good hunting men"_. Jeremiah saw red, these bastards had come in force to murder children, his charges! Oh they were going to pay but how? Oddly enough one of the Glasgow pilots gave him his answer, apparently the idea of becoming nobility over ruled military doctrine and the pilot vacated his frame to join the search. Jeremiah grinned and snuck up to the machine, fool hadn't even cleared his access codes.

Rising the Knightmare to its feet Jeremiah swung the rifle around and destroyed the other frame then the APC, grinning with vengeful glee he flipped the loudspeakers on "_Uncle Jerry's got a present for you all!"_. Only one man walked away from the Kururugi Shrine that night, and he was on a mission to save his Prince and Princesses.

_**Japanese Countryside, 30 kilometers outside Tokyo August 20 2010 A.T.B.**_

Kallen was scared, so was Naota even though he didn't show it, mom and dad had been arguing for awhile now, their car broken down and their phones getting no signal, there were bright flashes and booms in the distance but Naota tried to convince her it was thunder. Everything had gotten so scary in the past week, they had been on summer holiday visiting some of her moms family in Nagasaki when things started exploding and dead people filled the streets, Kallen may be sheltered but she knew perfectly well they were at war with...someone. Maybe that's why mom and dad were fighting, maybe Britannia had finally invaded Japan like Naoto had said they would.

Hopping out of the car in boredom Kallen walked over to a small wooded area a bit away from the road, waving absently to her dad when he said not to go too far, Naoto was sleeping in the back seat so he was no fun to play with...ugh. Looking through the trees she could have sworn she saw a one armed boy making his way through the brush, she was about to yell if he needed help when she heard her mother scream. Turning around in shock she saw that a Britannian APC had pulled up beside their car and they were trying to grab her mom, they were tearing at her clothes and holding her father to the ground, she rushed out of the woods to help them when she saw one of the men shoot her dad in the head. As she got closer one of the men had taken her dads wallet out and started swearing loudly.

"FUCK! FUCKING STOP TOUCHING HER!" his companions in the middle of unloosing their pants looked at him in confusion as he continued "You fucking idiots just murdered a duke! This is Duke Fucking Stadtfeld! You're trying to rape a Duchess!" The other men stared in horror, the cameras in their helmets recorded everything, while treating the Japs like animals wouldn't even be commented on this...this was execution without trial. As they were trying to figure out what to do Naoto rushed out of car holding his dads pistol running towards the men blindly firing, the Britannians raised their rifles to shoot when his mom dove in the way, they were both dead in seconds.

"FUCK!" The first soldier yelled again "Will you idiots stop murdering nobility!?" The other five soldiers once again realizing their idiotic mistake started swearing among themselves until one noticed the running form of Kallen falling next to her father.

"Dad?! Daddy?! Daddy wake up!". The soldiers honestly didn't know what to do at this point, until one of them said,

"...the APC stores all the data from our recorders then uploads them at the end of the day...if we...tie up loose ends and blow up the truck no one will know what happened". This thought seemed to cheer up the other soldiers except for the one still holding Lord Stadtfeld's wallet,

"Are you seriously going to murder a little girl to cover your own ass!? I won't allow it!"

The others exchanged looks for a moment then raised their weapons simultaneously and emptied their magazines into their shocked companion, they turned to the now terrified Kallen who was kept muttering

"No No No No," The new leader of the group sighed, took out a pistol and aimed it at Kallen's head,

"Sorry about this kid, survival of the fittest and all" as he was pulling the trigger a shot rang out and the mans neck ruptured, gurgling blood he fell to the ground. Turning they all saw a bloodied, one armed boy wearing the tattered clothes of a nobleman holding a smoking pistol, he smiled at the shocked troops and said,

"Only those that are willing to die should be allowed to kill". Struggling to reload their rifles one of the men let out a strangled yelp as a small figure with long raven hair jumped on his back slitting his throat with a knife that looked like the one in Mr. Ohgi's collection.

She watched numbly as a Japanese boy rushed towards two more soldiers disemboweling them with a sword, the last panicking soldier had just gotten a new mag in his rifle when a small Brittanian girl stabbed him in the eye with a thin polearm,

'How the hell does a twig like that girl have the strength to do that?' she thought. As quickly as it started it was over, the one armed boy looked to his companions and said

"Suzaku, Nu-bear, gather their weapons and toss them in the APC, suddenly we have a ride, Luluka look for any documentation in that car, these folks were nobles and it might be useful". The black haired boy turned towards Kallen and offered her his good hand, "And who might you be my lady?" she saw cunning and earnestness in his amethyst eyes.

"I'm...I'm Lady Kallen Stadtfeld..." The boy smiled sadly and said,

"I'm Prince Lelouch Vi Britannia, please don't tell anyone there is a bunch of idiot adults who keep trying to kill me and its getting a bit tedious", on any other day Kallen may have been squealing with delight to meet royalty but surrounded by the blood of her family she could only nod. Pulling her to her feet he lead her to the now dead soldiers truck "We're heading to Tokyo to call in a favor with an old friend, I think it would be in your best interest to come with us" as she was about to respond she let out a scream as Glasgow came barreling out of the trees towards them. It came to a halt and the pilot bailed out,

"My Lord! What happened here!? I told you I would return with supplies soon!". Lelouch waved it off

"Relax Jerry we found another group of marauders and they were about to kill this young lady after they did in her Lord father". The pilot, this Jeremiah looked around in disgust noticing the bullet riddled soldier,

"What about him?" Kallen spoke up surprising him

"He...he tried to stop them, they wanted to kill me and destroy their vehicle...to hide what they did...and he tried to stop.." and finally, everything that happened hit her and she broke down sobbing. Escorting Kallen to the APC he murmured to Jeremiah,

"Take his tags and leave him in the car with the family, leave the rest to rot." The man nodded in understanding and went to work, Lelouch entered the vehicle to see his family tearing into a stack of MRE's, grabbing a candy bar he offered it to Kallen and sat down next to her holding her tight as she sobbed. The group all exchanged glances then nodded, they would let her in the group, she had suffered as much if not more then they and they would protect her. Luluka glanced up at Suzaku and asked

"Wait...I'm at twelve how about you Suzaku?" The boy grinned and said

"Thirteen purple eyes," The girl muttered,

"bugger" and went back to eating. Kallen looked up in confusion and the small girl with the spear said,

"They keep score on how many soldiers they've taken out, it would be funny if it wasn't so morbid". The black haired girl who she realized must be the prince's twin snorted and sardonically asked,

"And how many are you at dear Nunnally?" The small girl shrugged,

"Six, you guys wouldn't let me help until we ran into that pair of psychos shooting up the suburbs"

"Yes well...we were trying to keep your hands clean, sadly the Britannian military didn't want to cooperate in that regard," Lelouch replied as he let out a sad sigh for lost innocence. Gathering her bravery she asked

"How...how do you guys fight so well? How are you able to take on grown adults?" Luluka spoke up,

"Same reason Lou over there isn't dead, we have Royalty Grade implants and nanotech, stronger faster smarter, blah blah blah, all it means right now is we're bloody hard to assassinate which honestly is all I care about right now".

'Ah' she thought 'Daddy had been talking about that, some rumor that the high courts coveted the most advanced bio-engineering or the like, it never really matter to me though'. She watched as Lord Jeremiah entered the NPC who earned a raised eyebrow from Lelouch, the knight sighed apologetically

"Sorry my lord the Glasgow's energy filler is empty, nothing to be done for it," Shrugging Lelouch said

"Its fine this thing should have enough juice to get us to the Tokyo city limits at least, if you wouldn't mind I believe I need some sleep", Jeremiah nodded and started the APC setting the heavy machine in motion. Kallen felt her head fall to Lelouch shoulder as her eyelids grew heavy, whispering

"Mom, Dad, Naoto, I'll always love you and miss you...but for now...I need to survive" with that she passed out leaving an understanding Lelouch staring at her still form.

"You'll be fine" he whispered.

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**Author Note: So now the team is complete! I kinda felt bad killing off her whole family but for where I wanted her in the story she had to be on her own and have a reason to stay at Ashford long term. I'm honestly not sure if I did it well, I kinda found the whole "Pulling the APC over to rape the eleven woman for no reason" thing was kind of cliche but I really couldn't find an effective way to kill the family off otherwise, so if anyone knows of someone who has done something similar but better please point me to their story I'd love to compare notes so to speak. If anyone is wondering about Nunnally killing I need to point out that she _is_ the daughter of Marianne the Flash and freaking Charles Britannia, the reason she was so innocent was because she was sheltered, now shes exposed and has to embrace the darkside a bit. Annnd I get the cop out that she's got cybernetics enhancing her strength so she can use a naginata, hooray for contrived plot points! Anyway until next time kiddos leave a review I'd love to hear what you all think!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author Note****: No writer should have to actually admit to disliking something they are currently publishing, but alas I am not a fan of this chapter simply because I really hate canon Ohgi but I needed to write him in to tie him to the later story, no Naoto and all. For expediencies sake I increased his age to the same as Kallen's mom and no, I will not be doing this often at all, I wrote myself into a corner and I had to make a decision. That said I wanted to delve into psychological damage caused to children over exposed to death and violence at a young age and how it can lead directly to sociopathic tendencies, this will be explored even further later on. Oh also no, I have absolutely no intention of writing from Ohgi's perspective again, hating the character I got no joy out of it and I can't do justice for those that like him so I'm going to attempt to avoid it at all costs. I may get another chapter up tonight since it will be the last 'Second Pacific War' segment and I'd like to move on to the next part, which by the way leave reviews or PM's on whether you want me to explore their lives a few years before Code Geass properly started or if you want it to be the 7 year skip.**

**Edit-Mild reformat 4/27/2014**

* * *

_**Tokyo Japan, Shinjuku District August 22 2010 A.T.B.**_

Nunnally really hated to admit it but even running for her life, dodging mobs of furious Japanese and murderous Britannians, while scaring away the former and killing the latter she loved being in Japan. Really, she was dotted on by her big brother and sister and they never treated her badly, but everyone at the palace had treated her like a porcelain doll and watched her like hawks. Being blessed...or cursed with incredible intellect like her siblings she had to deal with being treated like a normal 8 year old even by them, constantly pretending she doesn't understand whats going on around her. It...angered her...it insulted her in fact, but she never held it against anyone, how could they know, even her siblings ability to speak through their thoughts made them disconnected from her plight. So when Lelouch had stumbled out of that burning house, more furious about his lost arm then in pain, had agreed with Suzaku to arm her with a Naginata her heart had skipped a beat.

She didn't actually _like_ killing her former countrymen, and it was former they'd tried to kill her and her family and friends, you are an enemy after that, it was just so...freeing that her big brother saw her as an asset, one of his chess pieces to be used against a common foe and not as a burden. Even when her eyes would go out on her he would put a submachine gun in her hand and told her to pull the trigger at whatever direction she was pointed in, and when she got to use her Naginata...well for a brief while she'd irked Luluka by beating her score. Suzaku had groused how Nunnally had come in with a score handicap earning him a swift smack to the forehead by Kallen for the unintended insult, she rather liked Kallen but she spent most of her time with Lelouch. She really didn't get involved with there game, sure she helped kill to protect the group, she just didn't keep score, Nunnally did for her though.

She couldn't know it but every child in their group was intelligent and aware enough to realize their little game was slightly sociopathic, killing and death didn't mean anything to them anymore, outside of the one Britannian who had tried to save Kallen they were all viewed as badguys, not humans, and you kill badguys and move on with your life. So, with the knowledge that she was part of their team and not excess baggage, and being self aware enough to know she was slightly mental she happily followed her new and old family into the hearrt of a chaos vaguely wondering if she really even cared for going back to being normal again.

_**Tokyo Japan, Shinjuku District High School August 22 2010 A.T.B.**_

Ohgi Kaname was a very angry, very confused and very scared man at the moment, he was a school teacher dammit not a freaking fire team leader, unfortunately the group of Britannian soldiers spraying the front of the school with gunfire couldn't tell the difference. His nightmare had started two weeks earlier when he got a phone call from his old friend from college Misa Kozuki warning him of the impending invasion and begging him to get as many people to safety as he could. Apparently she was going through the list of friends she still cared about trying to give them an early warning, and it was because of her that he and the group of kids he was protecting were still alive. Sadly the invading troops had taken a large group of school kids holed up with water and food as a military cache and were doing their best to try and kill them all, luckily all they seemed to have were rifles and the school was made of old stone.

But...but the few weapons they had were severally outdated and the Britannians were getting angry, sooner or later they would get annoyed enough to call in the heavy artillery and they would be well and truly fucked. As if the Gods were listening a Britannian APC rolled up to the troops, the platoon leader was making frantic motions for the vehicle to move forward and as it got into firing position its turret rotated...towards the Britannians. The troops stared in confusion for a moment then tried scattering as the turret tore into them sending blood and body parts flying, the turret continued sweeping through them leaving nothing but stains. The side hatch opened and five...children?! Yes five children calmly hopped out carrying machine guns and what looked like medieval weapons...what in the hell? They made their way to the front of the school gingerly avoiding miscellaneous body parts.

The apparent leader was a boy missing his left arm, he and the others were wearing a miss matched collection of dirty rags and they were all armed to the teeth. The redheaded girl next to him looked anxious, a bit jumpy and...a bit familiar, wait no way, sticking his head out the window he yelled out

"Kallen?!". The girls dirty face lit up with excitement as she yelled

"Mister Ohgi!", he was ecstatic to see his friends daughter alive but...why was she with what amounted to a group of child soldiers? unbarricading the door he rushed out and gave her a hug as the driver of the APC walked up to him, he was obviously Britannian, an officer even but considering he just ground a bunch of them to meat... The boy beat him to the punch

"Greetings sir, my names Lelouch and you obviously know Kallen, this here is my buddy Suzaku, and my sisters Luluka and Nunnally, the gentleman who chauffeurs us around is Jerry." all of this was spoken in perfect Japanese. Before Ohgi could say anything the adult of the group spoke up

"We're not with Britannia, obviously, they've been trying their best to kill us for about two weeks actually, we saved the young Lady here from a group who had just executed her family and she wished to make sure you were ok since we were in the neighborhood." Ohgi was beside himself, they were all alive because his friends daughter remembered he worked at this school...doesn't that just figure, the man continued "Can you drive stick shift?". Confused, again, for like the ninth time today Ohgi just nodded, the man 'Jerry' tossed him a set of keys and said

"Get your group out of here and to a secure location, the city will fall in a few days and they know you're here now, the kids and I have to take the tunnels to our destination so the APC is useless to us". For some reason despite everything that happened something the boy said clicked.

"Wait" Ohgi stated, "Your names are Lelouch, Luluka and Nunnally? As in Vi Britannia? As in the kids that the Brit media is insisting were executed by the Prime Minister and used to justify this war?". As he said this the boys cocky grin fell and the raven haired girl with the shotos swore harshly enough to peel paint, the quieter girl sighed sadly and said

"Well...it looks like father found a use for us after all." with that the boy snapped

"The first thing those bastards attacked was the house we were staying in, guess I know why they wanted us dead at least.". The boy, Suzaku just scowled at this and then commented

"Your dads kind of a dick Lou", the violet eyed amputee just glared at his friend and replied

"Just realizing that Suz?" Jerry popped in at this point

"Well as much fun as this is we really need to get going and you folks need to run, if you all survive this you may look Kallen up at the Ashford estates"

With that the group of militant refugees ran off into the subway station down the street as Ohgi moved their supplies to the APC and they went deeper into the more damaged areas of the city to hide their spoils.

"Saved by a bunch of damn Brits, Brit KIDS at that, this is so embarrassing" one of the teens moaned, Tamaki he thought his name was, Ohgi could only roll his eyes and nod. Yeah, they were saved by the kindness of a little girl and a group of obviously messed up war orphans, lovely, for the first time since he got out of college he could honestly say that he needed a damn drink.

_**Tokyo Japan, Ashford Estate August 23 2010 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch was having an awful bloody time, the stimulants and antibiotics in his implants had run out last night causing him to collapse from exhaustion and fever much to his sisters' horror. Thankfully Jerry had no problems carrying him despite the indignity of it, Kallen kept staring at him fearfully like he was going to die,

"Don't worry about me, just pushed myself too far" he reassured her. He really didn't know why the girl was so attached to him, well...ok yeah he _had_ killed the man who was about to execute her but any of their group would have...

'Yes but it was you who did save her and now you have to deal with some minor hero worship'. He hadn't thought he broadcasted that...'You didn't broadcast by the way, I can just tell' Luluka teased, sighing inwardly he snipped back

'Yes well...huh you know its weird...I feel too crummy to fence with you right now...' Luluka jerked her head back to stare at him wide eyed

"Jerry we need to get moving and get him a doctor soon", Jeremiah looked at her in confusion and asked

"What is wrong princess?". The look of concern not leaving her face she said

"He doesn't want to bicker" Jeremiahs jaw clenched and he sped up his pace, Lelouch was about to say something about them being melodramatic but at that point he passed out. Sunlight awoke him a short while longer as they came out of the subway tunnel less then a block from the Ashfords estate, their tattered group went to the front door and Jerry slammed his fist on the door repeatedly. After a moment none other then Rubin Ashford opened the door in consternation then he saw Lelouch cradled in Jerry's arms.

"Bloody hell my lord you look terrible", laughing weakly Lelouch agreed then asked

"Mind if we come in? I'm rather tired of running...I'd love to rest...for a bi..." and he passed back out. Rubin quickly gestured the group in and immediately called for a doctor, tonight was looking to be a very long night indeed. Ordering his servants to gather fresh clothing for the worn out group he offered them access to the showers which they all accepted gratefully aside from Kallen who waited by Lelouch until the doctors showed. At that point she indulged in a long soak and after being given a set of pajamas by Rubin's granddaughter Milly, Kallen joined the others and passed out into blissful sleep.

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**Ok...finally got that over with, next chapter will be fun though, we get to find out what happens to all those lovely loose ends now that none of these characters are directly involved with where the story goes, or do they? Mwahahahaha!**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Tokyo Japan, Ashford Estate September 1 2010 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch felt...fuzzy, as the fuzziness started to fade he felt soreness, and with that the dull aching pain of where his arm use to be 'Ah' he thought 'guess my nerve block program went offline'. Realizing he was waking he tried forcing his eyes open, it was difficult but the room was lit by some candles on the bedside so it wasn't glaringly painful to do so, he looked around the room to see that he was alone, raising his hands he rubbed the sleep from his eyes then stopped short. Wait...hands? As in plural? Focusing on his left arm he saw that it was a prosthetic, it was made of white plastic and only had three fingers and a thumb, the hand being covered with a rubber sheath 'Ah, post neural interface installation training arm...nice' he thought.

Grunting as he sat up he heard the portable medical scanner beside him start whining, 'dammit pulled the sensors off...sigh...three...two...one..' and with that Luluka and Nunnally rushed in the room yelling "Brother!". They both came to a halt seeing him sitting up, he waved the mechanical hand sheepishly "Hi guys, I take it I've been out for awhile?" annnd with that he was being covered in hugs and kisses, ugh. Luluka was the first to regain her composure and helped sit him up correctly while explaining "Yes you've been out for about ten days, Rubin was starting to get worried that the interface he had installed on your stump was effecting your recovery, glad to see you were just being lazy". With a giggle she avoided Lelouch's half hearted attempt to swat at her, Nunnally picked up the conversation from there "The war is going badly for the Japanese, Mr. Ashford has been trying to distract us by having us talk to psychologists".

With that Lelouch stopped his attempts to capture Luluka and gave Nunnally his full attention "Wait...why are you all talking to psychologists?". Luluka snorted at this and waved her hand loosely "Oh I dunno, traveling through a warzone, seeing thousands of innocents slaughtered, murdering soldiers like it was nothing, oh yeah end kill count was 340 and Jerry won, cheater counted the turret kills". Lelouch mulled this over and he realized "Ah, they realized we've become borderline sociopaths...well I guess its for the best that they check our heads then...how are the others?" Nunnally picked up the thread "Suzaku is...not doing well, value system falling apart and all, he admitted to the shrinks that he enjoyed killing the Brits the OSI sent after us, oh and he's annoyed he only got second place". Luluka chipped in "Kallen is doing really well, Milly took a shine to her and has been helping her deal with the... family thing."

Sighing she dropped her head to her brothers shoulder "Poor thing is still pining after you but she's got spunk and is bouncing back, I like her we should keep her", Lelouch chuckled and said "we'll add her to the collection, anything else I should know?". She nodded "All those documents of her dads you made me grab? Bearer bonds, trade contracts, rites of succession, living wills, every piece of legal mumbo jumbo to guarantee she is the heiress of the Stadtfeld Estate." He looked contemplative while rubbing his chin "Hmm...if we can convince Rubin to sit in for stewardship until she's of age we could have a very powerful long term ally with her" Nunnally giggled "Already done, since he liquidated his assets to get away from Pendragon he has nothing keeping him from watching over her, he said it will be a hobby while he works on his real life goal."

Lelouch was about to ask what that was when he heard someone clear their throat, Rubin and Jerry were standing there smiling at his recovery "Lord Rubin, Jerry! Great to see you guys" Lelouch said in an uncharacteristically cheerful greeting. Both men bowed slightly and said "Your highness" Lelouch waved off the royal pandering and asked the men to come in and motioned for them to sit. "So" Lelouch started "First off Rubin, thanks so much for the prosthetic, I was getting worried that I'd only be recognized as 'the one armed boy' for a while there" the old man nodded at his lord with a smile. Turning to Jerry he gave his knight a sheepish grin "Sorry you had to carry me, I guess I had pushed myself further then I thought, Jerry simply smiled and said "It was an honor to aid you my prince." With the pleasantries out of the way Lelouch got to the real questions "So...how bad is it going out there?"

The two men exchanged a glance and they both seemed to deflate a bit, Rubin answering him first "Japan is about to fall, they cornered Genbu Kururugi at Hiroshima and they're systematically clearing the city block by block until they find him...its...total slaughter". Jerry picked up on that "The OSI tried to hit this place searching for 'dissidents' but they only sent two agents so Lord Ashfords maid disposed of them, they haven't been around since then". 'The hell kind of maid does Rubin have?' Lelouch thought, he got a chuckling response 'The kind that moonlights as a ninja...really' Lelouch didn't quite know how to take that tidbit but the part of him that was a ten year old boy thought it was awesome. Unaware of the side conversation Rubin continued "Outside of that the Japanese military is consolidating their resources and retreating to whatever refuges they can find, with the Prime Minister unable to give orders and Tohdoh too preoccupied with Itsukushima the war is all but lost".

With that sobering thought Lelouch racked his brain trying to figure out what to do, they couldn't go back to Pendragon, no way in hell was he putting his sisters back on his fathers chess board, but Japan was in ruins and most likely would remain dangerous for months if not years. Rubin seemed to sense Lelouchs quiet plotting "My lord I have a suggestion, for the long term if you'd like to hear it" "All ears" he responded, nodding he explained "My goal before you even showed up was to build an Academy, one that caters to both Nobles and commoners, a melting pot to try and break down class distinctions in future generations, I'd like your friends and yourself to be long term students there". Lelouch perked up at this and smiled eagerly "Rubin my good man, tell me more" with that they started planning, plotting, and preparing for the future.

_**Tokyo Japan, Ashford Estate September 9 2010 A.T.B.**_

Somewhere along the line he had started hating the Britannians that pursued them relentlessly, the bastards sent from the OSI trying to murder his adoptive family in an attempt to justify burning down his country. Suzaku Kururugi was aware that he was a hopeless idealist but at some point he'd decided Britannia had to be stopped, and the idea of changing it from the inside had been mulled over but Kallen changed that. Britannian soldiers slaughtering a noble family then willing to execute the only survivor to save themselves, then the one soldier standing up for his ideals was executed by his allies for expediencies sake, monsters. He sat there gathering his thoughts trying to make sense of it all while Lelouch sat on the floor with a resigned look on is face, Milly and Kallen painting two purple stripes on his prosthetic arm with nail polish, his sisters giggling at him. Deciding to needle the boy who was becoming a brother to him Suzaku spoke up "Well you DID say you wanted racing stripes Lou" Lelouchs only response was a rude gesture Milly taught him. Smiling in victory Suzaku went back to his thoughts when the television started flashing a special report, dreading what it could be he turned up the volume and sat next to his family.

"We bring you news from the city of Hiroshima, the Japanese Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi has been found by Holy Britannian forces and is currently being pursued through the streets as the coward attempts to hide in the masses" Suzaku paled as his friends all stared at him in shock, oh hell. The image switched to an aerial view showing a massive wave of civilians running from a picket line of Glasgow's, the screen focused on a man wearing bloodied fatigues with his right arm in a sling, "Father" Suzaku gasped. The man was not running, Kururugi's do not run, no he was attempting to guide the civilians, his people, away from the Knightmare force, making confident gestures towards subway entrances and large sewer drains when he and the crowd stopped and stared up. Suzaku inched closer to the screen and saw his father close his eyes and mouthed "I'm Sorry" then the screen went white, confused as the screen panned back he and his friends sobbed out a cry, the entire city block was gone, nothing more then burning wreckage and a massive greasy black mushroom cloud remained. "Multi-vector guided napalm ordnance...its used to clear bunkers in jungles...bastards." Lelouch muttered, as they soaked in the devastation the reporter came back on "Genbu Kururugi is dead, I repeat Genbu Kururugi is dead, today shines a bright new day for Britannia, Japan is defeated and is now properly Area Eleven, all hail the Emperor! All Hail Britannia!". With that it switched to cheering sycophants cheering and celebrating and all Suzaku could do was stare ahead in frozen shock.

His family surrounded him, the girls hugged him tightly crying into his shirt, Lelouch sat in front of him making direct eye contact "I swear to you Suzaku, we will destroy Britannia and make your peoples, your fathers, sacrifice mean something, this I swear to you as your friend and brother". The girls released him and Suzaku rose with Lelouch, through the shock, horror, and hatred he felt resolve crystallize, grabbing Lelouchs offered hand he said "I accept the oath...brother, together we'll kill them all". Lelouch's slasher grin, the one that terrified everyone but those closest to him cut across his face "We'll do more then that, we'll bring the entire rotten system to its knees and remind them what its like to be the ones hunted". Suddenly a hand grasped theirs, Luluka looking between them "I'm in as well, can't let you idiots go off and get yourselves killed" before he could say anything Nunnally's hand joined as well "Where my family goes, I go". Suzaku looked shocked at the two girls then Kallen's hand joined "Vengeance will be ours" she said coldly, and with that the pact was made, the Nobility of the Holy Empire of Britannia would never know that the seeds of their destruction were planted on their day of victory.

_**Kururugi Shrine Wreckage, Area Eleven October 13 2010 A.T.B**_

Cornelia Li Britannia walked despondently through the remains of the former Kururugi household, she had hoped to find answers here, some closure for Euphemia and herself, but all she found here were dead soldiers and a blown up personnel carrier. 'The force sent to recover the children?' She thought to herself, 'Looks like the Eleven bastards put up a fight after murdering my siblings' she mused as she sifted through bits of debris. She really had no idea why she was still here, it was fairly obvious the kids were dead, if not killed out right by the Prime Ministers forces then by whatever blast that took the house down, leaning with exhaustion against a desk she idly fingered the rough cuts in the wood. Deciding this was pointless she stood up to leave then stopped, turning around in a rush, carved in the wood were the initials L.B, L.B, N.B, the marks exposing raw wood through its scorched surface. Her heart thumping she tore through the desks drawers when she found a water stained letter with 'Jerry' written across it...'Jerry...that's what Lelouch use to call my subordinate!', eagerly opening the note she was able to make out some of through the smeared ink

_'J...y, we were righ...ad to be an inside job, w..re ... alive but I lost .. arm, don't fre...t i have it und.r contr... Luluka al...dy dum... soft..re package .. your imp..nts label... ...e and Seek", this will d...le your I.F ... open you to ours, do .. .nd you can tr..k us. We're ma..ng off ... .hat food an. .e..ons we ... find and h...ing to ... ...o..s ...at. i. Tok... ... o..s .. one a..way, se. ... so.n my knight_

_L.V.B'_

Cornelia felt tears forming in her eyes, it was mostly gibberish but she understood it, the children survived this place and they thought it was an inside job... Jeremiah hadn't been here when whatever happened, happened though. Glancing at the rotting soldiers she walked over to the APC and noticed that there was a bullet riddled Glasgow behind it, and both of them were stitched with the bullet holes the same caliber a Knightmare uses. Growing suspicious she crawled into the wrecked APC and looked through the radio station, she sorted through its guts and found an intact hard drive, she hurried back to her own vehicle and plugged the drive into her computer. While her implants were not as advanced as her younger siblings she had compensated for this by teaching herself basic programming and data sifting protocols, after two hours she was able to piece together enough data to get the last few seconds of the APC's transmissions.

_'Your orders are to reconnoiter the bomb site and confirm that all targets are eliminated, while the OSI is confident that the mission went as planned the war effort cannot be undermined. Be quick about it_ a_nd remember Lord V.V. has also stated that the soldier who successfully ends the Vi Britannia line will be given a lordship, good hunting men'._

Cornelia stared forward in shock, her own government, her own people had ordered the murder of her sweet siblings but why? Eyes hardening the pieces started clicking together, Mariannes murder, a setup, a bombing, important to the war effort, wipe out the Vi Britannia's...this...this was all either an elaborate revenge scheme or a well orchestrated attempt to justify invasion... Suddenly, Cornelia felt the growing realization she had just stepped into something far more dangerous then she could have ever anticipated.

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**As you can tell I decided to have a bit of fun with Cornelia and plant the seeds of doubt earlier, I'm hoping her new found paranoia will rub off on Euphemia a bit, that being said I finally have the ball in motion for Lelouch's little Rebellion to start early with those closest to him in the know. I gotta be honest, really hope this stuff doesn't come off as cliche but I'm really enjoying writing it, I won't be adding more for a few days in hopes I get some PM's or reviews from folks weighing in on whether to have a 7 year time skip or have a waypoint in the middle somewhere. The purple racing stripe is going to keep being a thing by the way, just like Charles personality its simply there because it amuses me.**


	6. Chapter 6-A brief interlude

**Author Note: I'm naming this chapter "A Brief Interlude" and as weird as it sounds it bums me out, the characters I created are starting to take a life of their own and I could honestly see this dysfunctional family having fun and messing with their friends living a peaceful happy life not waging a revolutionary war. Hmm...that's a thought...anyway this is the stepping stone between the Second 'Pacific War' and the 'Genesis of Zero' arcs, if you guys like the brief glimpse lemme know I may be compelled to write more "A day in the life of" style shorts, till then tata!**

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_**Tokyo, Japan Shinjuku Ghetto Outskirts May 10 2015 A.T.B.**_

Their group had made it a point to associate with the more dissident elements of the native population over the years, those who refused to just become Elevens and proudly still called themselves Japanese. This had been part of Lelouch's long term plan to endear and ingratiate themselves to the various resistance cells, not getting directly involved but supplying limited financial and material aid while making their presence known, the word was out that even the Britannians were sick of their government. They mostly worked through Ohgi who felt he owed Kallen for saving him and the group in return would spend time at his place letting him do what he loved best and teach, mostly history since it was untainted by Britannian bias. It was after one of these teaching sessions that Kallen and Nunnally were stopped by a group of what Luluka had dubbed "Noble wannabe twats" a short distance outside of the ghetto.

The gang was obviously wealthy going by their designer clothes, the six of them forming a rough semi-circle trying to hem the two girls in "Well well well, what do we have here, looks like a couple little tarts are slumm'in it with the Elevens, whats wrong girlies can't handle a real man?" the leader said. Nunnally rolled her eyes while Kallen barked out a laugh "Playboy there is only one man who could handle me and he isn't Japanese, why don't you idiots take a hike before I let my sister tear you apart" she retorted. The gang looked incredulously at the redhead as the leader grabbed Kallen by the arm "Bitch you got a mouth on you, if you don't show some respect I'll show you how to use it!", Kallen sighed and looked over to Nunnally "Sweety don't kill them Lelouch warned you last time, just maiming ok?". Nunnally simply grinned while pulling a short metal rod out from her jacket expertly twirling it as it extended into a staff "Broken bones ok Onee-chan?" Kallen smiled and nodded "Thats fine honey".

_**Tokyo, Japan Ashford Academy 45 minutes later**_

"Well you two look happy" Luluka stated as Kallen and Nunnally let themselves into the student council room while Lelouch attempted to do handstands with his prosthetic arm. "Yeah ran into some fanboys on our way home from sensei's place, they wouldn't take no for an answer so we got to do it for them" Nunnally stated cheerfully. With that Lelouch sighed and righted himself "Is there going to be another trip to the morgue? Seriously guys I know they're assholes bu-" Kallen cut him off "Don't worry Lou we only roughed them up, umm...what are you doing by the way?". Lelouch aimed a disgruntled scowl at Milly and stated "Oh not much just trying to see if my arm is working after our esteemed President tried to arm wrestle me with the Ganymede". Milly waved it off saying "I thought it would be fair" Lelouch threw his arms out screaming "I WAS ASLEEP!"

Suzaku looked up from his 'Modern Mecha' magazine and snorted "Think she was getting you back for that strawberry pancake thing bro", Lelouch opened his mouth to argue then stopped, looked contemplative then nodded "Ok yeah maybe I earned that one...anyway whats on the itinerary for today?". Looking over her notepad Luluka said "Hmmm...Rivalz wants to go over budgeting, apparently those creepy bastards in the equestrienne club are demanding more funding...again." Shirley perked up "Yeah they said all sorts of crazy stuff about the love between a man and horse, personally...I say we deny". Lelouch asked "All in favor?" every voice in the room said "aye", Lelouch nodded "Ok no to the creepy horse guys, whats next?" Rivalz pointed to the hunched form of Nina who passed out over her PC "Nina wanted the Physics Club disbanded since the last three meetings devolved into whether Issac Newton was hot or not.

Dead silence then Luluka broke out laughing, after a moment everyone followed waking up the mousy scientist, she looked around in confusion until Milly whispered into her ear, she perked up and said "Oh yes, we haven't done anything in weeks and they want more money to go on a field trip to the beach to...ummm 'Test the viscosity of sea water'". She paused to let that sink in "I decided to destroy them all after that, is that ok?" Lelouch and Luluka went into a giggle fit with the shared image of Nina in plate armor screaming "VICTORY IS MINE!" and it took a solid two minutes to calm the twins down enough for them to agree to deny the funding. An hour later they were all released from Milly's hold and went their separate ways

_**Tokyo, Japan Ashford Academy Student Council Center, Lamperouge Wing 2 hours later**_

Lelouch lay sprawled on his bed while Luluka and Kallen used his chest as a pillow while Nunnally and Suzaku played cards, glancing over to them he asked "So Nunu, I take it you jumped at the chance to vent...did they actually deserve it?". Nunnally paused a moment then nodded "Actually Nii-san they really did, I think they intended to rape Kallen at the very least, idiots gave off the vibe of those who had gotten away with it before". Lelouch rubbed his eyes in frustration then continued "If more of these gangs keep popping up its going to be even harder to recruit Japanese being a bunch of Brits...present company excluded" Suzaku waved the comment off it didn't really apply to him anymore, all his legal documentation said he had been born a half breed on the main land, their imaginary fathers bastard with a maid.

Contemplating what to do next a thought from his twin stilled him "Brother, seriously, turn off for tonight, everyone is safe, from both the Empire and Milly, just enjoy the together time ok?'. He weighed that and decided she was right, reaching for the remote he turned on an old Kaiju flick and sighed in contentment, sure he had to protect the innocent, punish the wicked, and mount his fathers head on a bloody pike, but for tonight he was with his family and he wouldn't lose that sense of purpose for anything. Suzaku and Nunnally moved to the bed as well and the happy family spent the evening together relishing the fact they were alive and together to do so.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author Note: Just so everyone knows most of the dates for this show are vague "This happened this year and this event happened two weeks after this one" sort of things so I'm going to do my best and try to keep it consistent but if something slips and doesn't make sense lemme know please! Also, trying to format this better if this is easier to read then previous chapters let me know and I'll go back and edit.**

_**Genesis of Zero**_

_**Tokyo Settlement, Area Eleven, Enroute to Shinjuku Ghetto April 17 2017 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch hadn't liked this plan from the start, it was too early to make themselves known and it felt like an unnecessary risk with limited gains considering what they were gambling. They had spent the past seven years building ties between the various resistance cells while unifying them all under a single flag, and with the illicit manufacture of high-end Knightmares through the Stadtfeld Industries aegis, on top of the generous donations from India they had a sizable private army. None of that mattered right now though, even though he personally wanted to wait another year to strike, Clovis, the imbecile that he was had forced his hand, not out of any ability at strategy or guile mind you. No, Lelouch and his cohorts had to act because Clovis got it into his idiotic brain to manufacture a chemical weapon, when Ohgi had let them in on the bit of intel he had gathered on something called 'Code R' Luluka had practically had an aneurysm.

"Clovis shouldn't be allowed near hair spray and an open flame much less a WMD!" and she demanded something be done, sadly everyone agreed including Lelouch, so here they were in a Black Level Security parking lot pretending to be the couriers for the Code R specimen. Suzaku and Kallen were in full armor and face masks playing the guards while the twins played the labor, their forged ID's miraculously working they handed off the bill of lading, took possession of the spherical container and they were off just like that, an easy swipe job that used bureaucracy against itself.

Unfortunately, as tends to happen the unforeseen had occurred, the goddamn Pureblood Faction led by Kewell Sorsei had decided to pander for more of Clovis' attention, and demanded to escort them to the new facility. When it became clear that they were not in fact the couriers, the shooting started and Luluka's driving skills were put to the test.

"Shit shit shit!" Luluka screamed as she swerved away from another burst of automatic fire "That goddamn gunship is going to kill us at this rate". Looking back Lelouch sighed then hit the comm switch.

"Q1, Q2, guys I hate to say this but we may need to reveal you early" there was a squelch of static before he heard Kallen respond.

"Q1 confirms, we're good to go on your count" Grimacing Lelouch bit down the surge of worry he had for her, as if sensing his discomfort Suzaku cut in.

"Don't worry K1, we'll keep each other safe, get the package to the ghetto and leave the rest to us". With that a slash harken flew from the back of the trailer and smashed into one of the pursuing enemies. The remaining pilot panicked but was unable to avoid the follow up attack. As if on queue a pair of VTOL transports flew behind them dropping their Knightmare payload.

"The rest of you back off, we'll handle this Eleven filth on our own!" The Pureblood announced, the pair rushing towards the trailer "Whatever piece of scrap you threw together is no match for a Sutherland!" and with that boast the back of the trailer exploded. A red and orange Gloucester flew out cape billowing behind it, its lance stabbing towards the lead Sutherland before it even hit the road, as the first victim fell his companion was barely able to raise his rifle before a second white and gold unit finished him off with a burst of duel rifle fire.

"Haha...don't think they expected that" Suzaku commented, stowing one of his rifles in exchange for a lance, he turned his unit to pursue the truck and Kallen followed.

"Oh no way in hell, come on we need to meet B1's team and transfer the package, lets run interference for the twins shall we?

_**Somewhere in the Shinjuku Ghetto**_

Nunnally wasn't bored, Saoko and Jeremiah had bought her an entire pack of multi-color paper to practice her origami last time the couple had come to visit so she was currently making cranes waiting for her family to show, she hoped they hurried she really wanted to blow something up.

_**Tunnel leading to Shinjuku Ghetto**_

'Do you even know where we are going?!' He thought to his sister

'In a strait line underground smartass! If you hadn't noticed our engine block is leaking next to everything!' she retorted. She pulled a face realizing that the smell of burning components was becoming stronger 'I don't think this truck has much life left in it Lou'

'No you're right, this trucks about had...' "OH FUCK LOOK OUT!" He yelled as they pulled into a large cavernous room filled with debris, Luluka tried desperately to avoid the concrete wreckage but failed to see the column before them, then everything went white.

_**Shinjuku Ghetto Proper**_

Suzaku swung his Gloucester around and riddled the pursing Pureblood with automatic fire, without even thinking about it he aimed one rifle over his shoulder and took another Sutherland out with ease.

"You know Q2 I'm really not feeling it, we trained seven years for _this?_ These chumps couldn't even handle K1 hungover" she said as she ran a third Sutherland through with her lance.

"Know what you mean, kind of feel over prepared for all this" he stated as a fourth Sutherland fell to both their slash harkens

"Where are they anyway?" She asked worried, her frame looking left to right

_**Back in the Tunnel**_

Groaning Lelouch came to rubbing his badly bruised forehead, trying to ignore the worst of the shock he grabbed his sister and shook her till she awoke.

"Did anyone get the number of that asshole?" She muttered, Lelouch let out a weak chuckle saying,

"Yeah don't think support columns are listed like that Lulu, you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, come on lets go check out the gas canister, last thing we need is for it to rupture after all this" she said, grabbing Lelouch by the wrist and pulling him out of the cab with her. Stumbling to the trailer they crawled in and used their torches to look at the capsule

"Uh...yeah you know this looks less like a gas canister and more like an...isolation chamber..." Lelouch said as he rubbed his hand along its edge

'Finally I found you! The one I was looking for!' He heard directly in his head

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Luluka practically screamed, before he could respond the canister ruptured and filled the area with fog.

_**G-1 Mobile Command Base Shinjuku Ghetto**_

Prince Clovis glared down at his tactical display board with pure malice, the filthy Elevens had two units and they were shredding his people apart, apparently they had gotten their hands on a pair of hotrod Gloucester's and had all but wiped the Pureblood faction out along with half of his honor guard.

"General Bartley" Clovis yelled "What are you doing to rectify this?!" Bartley for his part paled and sweated a bit more,

"Prince Clovis we're calling in as many forces as is acceptable but anymore then this and the witnesses will not be able to be contained" the fat man lamented. Clovis rubbed his forehead then sighed,

"Nothing can be done for it, liquidate the entire ghetto, make sure no one gets out."

_**In the tunnels**_

As the fog cleared standing in the middle of the ruptured cell was a green haired woman with golden eyes, her lithe body wrapped in restraining gear, she stared at the twins for a moment then fell over.

"Umm...did...did the gas canister just hatch a hot green haired chick in a bondage outfit?" Luluka asked, all Lelouch could do was nod.

_**Derelict Skyscraper in Shinjuku Ghetto**_

Nunnally squeed happily, idiots were pouring into the ghetto like Nii-san said they would, arming her pink Gloucester's sniper rifle she snapped off three quick shots exploding the cockpit blocks on an equal number of Sutherland's. Reloading the rifle she eyed more targets, she never understood the Geneva conventions, not purposefully killing the bad guys meant they could come back later, and if purposely murdering them in their ceramic coffins was a war crime so be it, there _were_ benefits to being a terrorist after all. No one would take her family from her, and if that meant killing anyone who threatened them so be it, she cracked off three more shots and grinned, combo kill.

_**In the tunnels**_

The two of them dragged the green haired girl out of their truck when they saw torch lights shining down the tunnel, before they could get any further an entire squad of Clovis's honor guard intercepted them, the leader was rambling about something but the twins completelty ignored him.

'Ready for this brother?' Luluka asked, Lelouch groaned

'Please please please let this be the last explosion we put up with today', with that he nodded to his sister, she looked at the lead Brit grinning

"Boom bitches!" As she hit the detonator that blew their truck up. Coughing they ran further down the tunnels and surprisingly enough, it looked like they got away

_**Back Above**_

Kallen's slash harkens destroyed another pair of gunships while she simultaneously gunned down another Sutherland and ran through his partner, she was currently at 10 Knightmares to Suzakus' 12, that needed to be rectified.

_**Down below**_

They had continued running up, but the sound of gunfire and screaming only got louder, as they breached the surface the stench of blood and death was all that greeted them, the entire warehouse was filled with dead women and children. Luluka threw up and Lelouch wasn't far behind, it wasn't long before the same piece of shit honor guard reaquired the trio.

"Fitting for terrorist scum to die like this, although you did fight hard, it befits you being a Britannian"

'Oh damn' Luluka thought out to him' thems fighting words', but before either of them could move the man aimed at Luluka's face,

"Unfortunately for you its time to pay the price of disobediance", as he pulled the trigger the green haired woman dove in front of them screaming,

"They must not die!" and took the bullet right to the forehead, she was dead before she hit the ground.

"You...you shot her..." Lelouch muttered, Luluka just stared numbly down at the dead woman.

"Well..." the officer started "Our orders were to bring her back alive but I guess the terrorists tortured her to death first, a pity"

As he was about to pull the trigger, the woman's hands spasmed and grabbed both the twins, electric jolts running up their arms into their very cores,

"You don't want it to end here, do you? You two appear to have a reason to keep on living, if you wish to keep living on I propose a contract" With that images of colliding gas giants, ethereal electric storms and...the undead flashed through their minds "If I give you power, you will make my one wish come true, if you accept this contract you accept its conditions, you will live among the humans but apart from them, you will live in a different providence, a different time...a different life. The power of the King...and Queen...will condemn you to a life of solitude, are you prepared for this?" In the midst of it all they heard their fathers familiar bellow

"A duel convergence with Ragnarok connection?! IMPOSSIBLE!"

Snarling the twins shouted at once

'WE ACCEPT THE TERMS OF YOUR CONTRACT!'

Luluka stood up first staring at the guards

"Say...how does a Britannian..." Lelouch stood up and continued

"Who hates their own government act?" The guards just stared in shock at their glowing red eyes

"Whats wrong?" Luluka asked

"We're just simple school children" Lelouch chided

"Or is it perhaps you've finally figured out"

"That only those that are willing to die"

"Should be allowed to kill" Luluka said this grinning as she vanished to her foes and appeared behind them, a half dozen were dead to her blade within seconds. The rest stared at Lelouch in shock as he cackled

"I, Lelouch Vi Britannia order all of you, die" The men all grinned at Lelouch and yelled

"Yes your highness!" And shot themselves spraying blood on their new King. The two royals stared at each other for what felt like hours but was really only seconds, and as one they said,

"Well Then..." And broke out in manic laughter.

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**My computer had a mental breakdown twice while writing this, if something seems out of place lemme know it was probably just me getting tired of going over it again**


	8. Chapter 8

**Power of Absolute ****Avoidance-The unique power acquired by Luluka Vi Britannia, it causes all persons in the effected area to completely ignore the Geass user, she could be standing with a shotgun to your face and neither you nor your friends would notice until she stops casting. Its effective range is estimated at 40 meters and persistent usage causes migraines.**

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_**Shinjuku Ghetto, Camelot Divison Prototype Trailer April 17 2017 A.T.B.**_

Cecile was at her wits end, the devicer that Prince Schneizle had supplied for the Lancelot project was a vicious, cruel, offensive, and violent psychopath, not to mention he kept trying to paint "blood" splatter on the units hands and mouth. Even Lloyd was getting irritated with this "Knight of Ten", and don't even get her started on all the sexual harassment, the orange haired nutcase was still leering at her bum when a priority message from Prince Clovis's G1 flashed across the terminal.

"Prince Clovis, how may I serve you my lord?" She asked, not really caring what the dandy had to say, oh dear Lloyd was rubbing off on her again.

"I need to know how quickly your little toy can be deployed" He stated without his usual flair, oh things must not being going so great with his attempted genocide, what a pity.

"We need roughly twenty minutes to get the core online, outside of that it will be ready to launch at a moments notice" And the sooner the better, get this guy away from me...

"Very well do so, I may be needing your services soon"

_**Shinjuku Ghetto Warehouse**_

They stood there over the blood and bodies staring into each others glowing eye, unsure of what to do next

"Lulu...what exactly did that...witch want us to do with these powers?" Lelouch asked sounding as tired as he felt.

"I don't know brother...but the fact that we literally just got magic powers from her makes me question if she's actually dead" She glanced down at the woman's body noticing some movement. Lelouch followed her gaze and started,

"Whoa, bullet is being pushed out of her skull...ok...I say we bring the magic girl with us", snorting Luluka responded

"And precisely how are we supposed to do that?" At that the wall exploded behind them and a Sutherland smashed into building, it stopped and aimed its rifle at them.

'Not a goddamned word Lou' she thought

'Of course not, si-' he started but the woman in the Knightmare started speaking

"You there, how did all these royal guards die? Why is a Britannian here anyway?" Britannian? Ah, Luluka was doing her disappearing trick.

"My name is...Alan Spacer my fathers a Duke I need you to escort me out of here as soon as you check my ID" Roughly thirty seconds later an incredibly attractive mocha skinned woman with silver hair walked away from the frame

'Down boy or I'll let Kallen know' Luluka teased as she appeared behind the woman and bashed her on the back of the skull, knocking her out and more then likely giving her a concussion.

"Ha ha ha dear sister, come on grab the witch and lets go" he said as he grabbed the Knightmares FOB from the woman's limp grasp, a minute later they were on their way the hell out of there.

_**Shinjuku Ghetto Rumble **_

'This is it Britannia? Really? You're given one fair goddamn fight against an opponent you didn't blitz or outclass and you're brought to your knees? Pathetic' Suzaku thought as he ran through his twentieth Knightmare and swatted down what felt like the hundredth gunship.

"They're really not making a great showing of themselves are they?" Nunnally said sounding incredibly bored "oh and that's number twenty-one for me by the way, judging by standard Britannian combat load outs they have maybe six frames left since Q1 took out twenty-three, this is seriously a pathetic showing"

"Like I said before, feel over prepared for all this, have the strangest feeling I could have gone out on the town more often and not trained so damn hard" Kallen muttered.

The radio pinged and then made some nasty static noises as if someone kept dropping their handset,

"Goddamn, sorry guys kept dropping the radio, we've commandeered a Sutherland and recovered the package, which by the way is a hot chick in a bondage suit and not a gas weapon, go figure" Luluka announced.

"Uh...k...that wasn't in the intelligence report" Ohgi stated

"Oh hey B1 sorry got distracted not dying, your group still intact?" Lelouch queried

"Yup, we evacuated as many of the citizens as we could, awaiting orders" was the quick reply

"N1 is transmitting some coordinates to you, there is a train loaded with Honor Guard Sutherlands, they won't be needing them anymore so take what you can and run like you stole it, we'll meet back up at base" and with that the radio went silent.

_**Camelot Divison Prototype Trailer **_

When the call to launch came through from Prince Clovis the two scientists couldn't get Luciano Bradley away from them fast enough, as the psycho literally _cheered_ at the prospect of killing, the Lancelot peeled out towards the battle.

"You know Cecile...I'll be quite cross indeed if something happens to my Lancelot but...well...if it were to happen to that man as well? I'm not sure I'd mind so much" Lloyd confided, it was saying something when a self declared sociopath couldn't stand someone.

"I noticed you didn't tell him that the emergency eject system wasn't installed yet" She replied

"Indeed, where is my mind at" Lloyd replied with his customary smirk.

_**Approaching the battlefield remenants**_

The Knight of Ten was livid, he had been sent to this backwater Area to test drive Schneizle's new toy simply because he tried to get frisky with Nonette, its not like the crazy bitch hadn't carved a chunk out of his chest when he grabbed her ass, as far as he was concerned they were even. But no, here he was having to sit with the simpering scientist and his cock-tease assistant while there was an honest to god war going on out there and only AFTER everyone was dead did they launch him. Life was not fair he decided, as he rounded the corner he saw the red Gloucester finish off the last of the Sutherlands with a reverse grip stab of its lance, not even deigning to turn around for the explosion.

"Oh ho ho, you seem confident, lets see how you handle the Vampire of Britannia!" He bellowed over the radio and charged forward brandishing the Lancelot's VARIS rifle while pulling out an MVS in the other hand, "SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN DO MONKEYS!"

The red Gloucester just stood there in the intersection, as if dumbfounded, whatever he'd kill this Eleven filth then hunt down the white one, just as he was about to make contact with the terrorist a white blur appeared from the opposite way slamming him into a building.

"Your situational awareness is terrible" taunted a Britannian accented voice, obviously female, the red knightmare leveling its rifle and fire both grenades and high velocity rounds, Bradley was able to activate the Blaze Luminious shields at the last second and jump back onto the street trying to maneuver around the white units lance thrusts.

"Maybe. Should. Have. Read. That. Manual." He gasped out between jabs, he was treating this prototype like a Gloucester and it was fighting him the entire way, pulling back out to the open he fired the VARIS rifle but only managed to punch a hole in the white Gloucesters cloak, as he moved to swing his sword the red frame sidled up to him and grasped the arm immobilizing him. Frantically he tried to aim the rifle at it but the white unit grabbed that arm as well, both Gloucesters reared back their lances to stab his cockpit block and he frantically hit the eject levers...and nothing happened.

"NOOOO!" He managed to scream desperately firing off all the slash harkens, miraculously knocking both weapons aside and pushing the enemy Knightmares free, grinning madly he aimed down at the fallen white frame "YOU DIE NOW MONKEY!"

"Boom. Headshot." was the last thing he heard before the high velocity, fin stabilized, depleted uranium sniper round tore through the back of the cockpit decapitating him.

_**Shinjuku Ghetto, Prince Clovis G1 Mobile Base**_

As they approached the mobile base the green haired woman started to stir, in one smooth motion she sat up,

"What time is it?" She asked between yawns, stretching her arms, Luluka looked back from her uncomfortable perch on Lelouch's lap

"Heyya magic girl, bit after 7 pm, we're about to go pay dear old Clovis a visit, wanna come with? I'm assuming he was doing all sorts of vile shenanigans to you to figure out how you tick so if ya want you can get your vengeance on."

Well...this was new, most of her contractors at least had the sense to scream in shock if not outright feint the first time she came back to life in front of them, this girl barely recognized it and her brother outright it ignored it, how interesting.

"Well, it would be rude to come all the way to his fortress and not take the tour now wouldn't it?" She replied, the boy snorted and glanced back at her

"Lelouch Vi Britannia, this is my sister Luluka, since you gave us power we might as well be honest with you" Marianne's children? How delightful they still lived and they turned out so interesting! She would refrain from telling her former contractor just yet, wouldn't want to ruin the fun.

"You may call me C.C. for now, what do you plan on doing with the power I gave you?" She asked as he powered down the Knightmare in the G1's now very empty hanger.

"That's a terrible name, and we plan on wiping out the royal family, destroying the cast systems of the empire, and preferably burn dear old dad alive" Luluka responded with no small amount of vitriol

"Not necessarily in that order" the boy threw in,

'My my my' she thought smiling, '_veeeery_ interesting indeed', without another word the trio made their way to the bridge, Geassing the crew were necessary, and killing them were it was not possible, it took less then three minutes to make their way through.

Lelouch was the first through the door, Bartley was busy being berated by Clovis neither of them looking at the newcomers, the rest of the bridge crew did though gaping at the blood splattered trio, before any of them could say a word Lelouch activated his Geass and simply said,

"Die", and so they did, a couple of them actually taking turns using the same pistol which C.C. found oddly amusing, the fat general was gasping trying to make sense of the situation as Luluka appeared beside Clovis with her shoto at his throat. Lelouch turned to C.C. and asked "Who's he?", she sneered at the monocled general

"General Bartley, he was directly in charge of Code R" at this Lelouch smiled and walked up to the general, activating his Geass he handed the general a date stick,

"My good man, I want all records pertaining to the Code R project and any related or unrelated research data as well as all planned future troop deployments, when you finish with that I want you to return the stick to me and activate the G1's self destruct setting it for ten minutes, when you finish with that ask C.C. what she wants you to do and follow her commands." C.C. was impressed, he was already setting defined instructions to avoid accidents, and he gave her a present too, how sweet!

"Hi Clovy, how ya doing?" Luluka asked grinning down at the panicking man, "I'd like you to cancel the genocide order, now" Nodding meekly Clovis just kept his eyes forward as he transmitted the order to withdraw, after this he finally had the courage to look at his assailants and gaped in shock.

"Lu...Lu...Luluka? Lelouch!? You're alive! I'm...I'm so happy to see you!" The twins looked at the pile of dead bodies and simultaneously quipped,

"We sincerely doubt that", Lelouch walked up the throne steps and glared at Clovis, he contemplated his questions then said,

"I wish for you to be cooperative for the time being" and with that Clovis sighed and relaxed, Luluka pulled her blade away and the now malleable prince said,

"Ok."

"Now" Lelouch started "What can you tell me about my mothers death?"

'Oh ho, still hung up on that, maybe I _should_ contact Marianne', sitting cross legged in front of Clovis she rested her chin in her hands to watch the fireworks.

"I have no idea, perhaps Cornelia or Schneizle know something, but Cornelia has been fairly vocal about her outrage over the whole thing, I doubt she honestly knows anything". Hmm...interesting

"Why were you performing experiments on C.C.?" was his next query

"She's immortal and can grant powers, she wouldn't cooperate so I tried to either force her to, or learn on my own through vivisection" both twins cringed and C.C. shuddered at the horrible memories.

"Final question brother, why did you order the deaths of all those innocents?" at this point Lelouch had a pronounced eye twitch

"They were only Elevens", with that response there was a pregnant silence, the general shifted back to the group and handed Lelouch the datastick and turned to C.C.

"what do you want me to do ma'am?" He asked in monotone, C.C. grinned wickedly at him and stated,

"Go drown yourself in the toilet" with that the general walked around them and went into Clovis's private batheroom, Luluka started chuckling and simply said

"Nice."

As this happened the Geass on Clovis cleared and he looked around in shock at the monitor displaying the base would explode in nine minutes and started screaming about how they were family and the like, turning to C.C. once again Lelouch asked

"How do you want to handle this witch? You're the one who suffered the most from his foolishness" She paused then shrugged

"Shoot him in the knees and leave him in the base, leave him a radio so I can hear him beg." Nodding Lelouch turned and blasted both of Clovis's kneecaps off while tossing him a radio.

"Enjoy brother, watch that first step into Hell I hear its a doozy"

_**Black Knights Main Facility Beneath Ashford Acadamy, 2 hours later**_

As the twins very cramped Sutherland pulled out of the abandoned subway tunnel and into the base they entered into pandemonium, mechanics and techs were swarming over the dozens of captured Knightmares cataloging the haul while Ohgi did his best to keep it close to something like order. In the back corner their families Gloucester's were surrounding one of the most interesting looking Knightmares they had ever seen, it was elegant and beautiful aside from the bullet hole leaking gore on the front of the cockpit block. Pulling up to the group they disembarked as Nunnally ran up and hugged them

"Nii-san! Nii-chan! Guess what I got second place! Oh and we killed the Knight of Ten and Suzu stole his Knightmare, can we get pizza tonight?" Standing shocked at this string of information C.C. pushed between them and looked down at Nunnally,

"You I like, who has a credit card I'll call Pizza Hut"

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**Hope this was ok guys, this was mostly action and I haven't done alot of that up to this point, if anyone has suggestions let me know I'm trying to stay consistent with the quality of this story.**


	9. Chapter 9

_**Excerpt from 'Business Britannia' Circa** **2015'**_

_Lord Ashford, as the steward for Stadtfeld industries has dramatically re-purposed the corporation from consumer electronics into the number one manufacturer of high end, cost effective medical replacement limbs and Nightmare R&amp;D Proving Facilities. While this is remarkable in its own right, his stance and that of his young ward Ms. Kallen Stadtfeld on labor have caused waves throughout the business world, the companies policy of housing, feeding, training, and providing medical care for numbered employees being on par with that of pure Britannians enraging hardliners. Lord Ashford responded with "Oddly enough when you treat your employees with respect and dignity you get more productivity out of them, as Ms. Stadtfeld's advisers have said on multiple occasions 'willing servants are far more useful then resentful slaves'. That's beside the point, most of my detractors are simply peeved that my policies of financial equality netted Ms. Stadtfeld 29% higher profit margins then her closest competitor, it would be my estimation that if they wanted to share those profits they should attempt to emulate rather then detract from our efforts."_

_**Black Knights Main Facility Beneath Ashford Academy April 18 2017 A.T.B.**_

C.C. was content for the first time in awhile, sure it was one in the morning and she had been shot in the head at one point in the past 24 hours but she was freed from Clovis, her new contractors had let her have sweet sweet petty revenge and their little sister had given her instant access to glorious pizza. So she just sat their contentedly munching through her own meat lovers while the adorably dysfunctional family exchanged stories, it was so strangley relaxing being around people who legitimatly loved each other. Lelouch was in the middle of describing how they had stopped to take pictures of the exploding G1 when his phone range,

"Ohgi-sensai, how goes it? Really? She was hopping up and down squealing?" he sighed "well tell her to let me know the moment she finds something out about that unit...yes tell her we did hose out the cockpit before we sent it over, mmhmm...ok take it easy, bye." Hanging up he grabbed for a slice of pizza when Kallen asked,

"What was that about hon?" Hon? Oh my was little Lelouch in a relationship? He grinned pulling his hair back behind his ears, very cute.

"Ohgi just got that prototype you guys nicked to Rakshata, she's practically fawning over it, he hadn't even gotten the truck closed up before she had one of its arms torn apart, I have the strangest feeling we might all be getting some upgrades in the near future." With that he pointed at C.C. "So yeah guys, magic bondage hottie gave us super powers, wanna see?" C.C. couldn't help but blush a bit at that, Nunnally's eyes got wide and squeaked,

"Magic?!" Her brother chuckled and said

"Totally, Luluka dearest?" With that his sister grinned then disappeared, to her family it appeared that Kallen's blouse unbuttoned indecently low, Nunnally's slice of pizza had a massive bite taken out of it, and Suzaku had a large lipstick kiss mark on his cheek, they all stared numbly at her then the simultaneous response of,

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"COOLIO!"

"Bwa...hehe..ah..."

Grinning like the Cheshire cat she said,

"If I don't want you to see me, you don't, simple as that, oh the locker rooms will be chaos tomorrow..." They seemed to all shake their shock off quickly, looking to Lelouch, he grinned sheepishly.

"I can make anyone do anything I want, I mean _anything_" he said this last bit while winking at Kallen who blushed deeply. He smiled and looked at Luluka "I command you, you will be unable to swear for the next 5 minutes", she stared at him a second then said

"Oh fu...fu...what the sh...Lelouch you mother fu... Oh I swear to the old gods I will destroy your scrawny a...AHHHHHHH!" Luluka screamed and ran into her room.

"Wow" the three said at once, they looked contemplative for a moment, Nunnally turned to him and asked,

"Use one on me!" Lelouch nodded then cast his Geass

"Why do you paint your Knightmares pink?" Her face fell flat and she monotoned

"Because I think its bloody hilarious having prissy nobels being beaten by something the same color as my vibrator", with that her eyes cleared and she shook her head. "Oh dear" she mumbled trying to hide her face to avoid the embarrassed looks from her family. Suzaku coughed loudly to break the silence then continued

"Annnnd now we know way more then we wanted to, so movin-" Before he could finish his sentence Luluka ran out of her room with a baseball bat screaming,

"Lelouch I'm going to fu...I'm going to destroy your scrawny as...GAHHH!", before violence ensued C.C. spoke up causing everyone to stop mid action

"Would the rest of you like to form a contract?", much to her surprise Lelouch stepped in before they could respond.

"First you're going to explain exactly what these powers are, where they draw their energy from, and what happens to the users in the long term, we had no choice but to accept your offer since we were rather pressed for time but I won't have you endangering my family so they can have some extra parlor tricks." She had to reevaluate the boy again, every time he reminded her of his zealot parents he threw a stick into the spokes.

"Yes..." Kallen agreed staring at the lime haired witch, "I'd really like to know exactly what you got my fiance involved in before we make any rash decisions." That settled it, Marianna had to hear about all this now, her little boy was engaged? The incorrigible woman would love this. Sighing she wolfed down her last slice of pizza and took a swig of the beer Suzaku had given her.

"Ok first off my Code of Immortality comes from the World of C..."

_**Tokyo, Area Eleven, Stadtfeld Industries Secret Developments Lab April 18 2017** A.T.B_

Rakshata Chawla was on Cloud 9, not only did she have the Earl of Pudding's baby at her mercy but her wonderful benefactors saw fit to recover it nearly intact, the cockpit block quite seriously being inconsequential, the second it had hit her underground labs floor her team of forty mixed nationality engineers had torn the Lancelot apart like worker ants. In less then an hour the entire thing had been disassembled, cataloged, and the more yummy bits put under scrutiny for reverse engineering, at any other facility for any other faction in the world digesting all this new information would take weeks of pandering with officials for funding, authority and other red tape. Here, now, at this lab all they needed was 'Boss Red' to clear a half a billion quid in funding and they were off, hell Ms. Stadtfeld had even cleared a hybrid prototype to see if the two design principles could benefit from each other.

"Yes, Lloyd and I could have a child together" the blonde Indian said chuckling, manipulating the blueprints she went over mythology in her head, this unit would be a reaper, a reaver of souls the very best from three of the greatest minds in existence, a chooser of those to be slain. With a start she smiled and named the new unit to be,

"Project Valkyrie, something tells me you'll be second favorite only to my dear Guren", she thought as she made another pot of coffee, it was to be a very long, fruitful night.

_**Ashford Academy 30 minutes later**_

The family sat there mulling over the information they had just received, while the idea of any power they were given running rampant was all together terrifying, the chance that it could be perfected and fully controlled was alluring, Kallen glanced down at her hands and kept mulling the pros and cons. It was a terrifying choice to make, especially since she had no idea what her power would be and if it was even something she could control long enough to avoid going mad which apparently was a very real threat. Lelouch and Luluka both looked a bit ill, it was fairly obvious they were suffering buyers remorse but their options had been limited to 'pariahic magic power or death' so for her own selfish reasons she was glad Lelouch took the contract. Before she could talk herself out of it she turned to C.C. and with a shudder said,

"I'll take your contract, if only to protect my family", 'there' she thought, 'the die is cast'. C.C. gave her a coy smile and touched Kallens cheek, she got the same laser light show the twins told her about but as it all cleared C.C. made her offer,

"For the power of the Queen, you must promise to protect these wonderfully refreshing siblings, they're a light in the world rarely seen", Kallen would never know it but her reaction to this was quick enough to surprise the immortal.

"I of course accept your contract...and I see the way you look at him, back off." Grinning maliciously C.C. sealed the pact.

As she sat there absorbing what just happened she flexed this new mental muscle and watched as Lelouch reached over to hold her when she saw his beer fall off the edge of the table, without thinking she reached out and grabbed it, the bottle falling in her hand well after she put it there. Staring dumbly she turned to C.C. who was grinning wickedly

"Oh nice, Absolute Precognition, I've only ever seen that one once before...you are a very focused and loyal individual Ms. Stadtfeld", as Lelouch pulled her into his embrace C.C. looked at Nunnally and Suzaku, but before anything could be said the little brown haired teen said

"Me next!", at this C.C. reached out to her but her light show was different, C.C.'s voice sounded sad,

"Your injured in the mind little one, your family does everything in their power to help you but you've been so damaged healing isn't an option, but you're strong, you actually acknowledge this and work past it...you are an incredibly strong young woman." Gathering herself she retorted,

"I have been killing since I was seven years old, there are only two groups in the world, my enemies and everyone else, who ever hurts the latter ends up in the former, and they have to die for it" C.C. was quiet for a moment and then she felt some warmth from the immortal.

"You are a strange, interesting mortal, my contract is this, you must keep your wonderful family safe, even from themselves, anything goes so long as they survive". The teen grinned the same smile Luciano Bradley never got to see the moment before his death.

"So keep the status quo, roger that. I accept your contract Ms. C.C., that's a terrible name by the way."

Nunnally came to and stared at her family, she took a deep breath and activated her power, her entire family started to writhe in pain gasping, muttering apologies to the air, she screamed and quickly turned it off. They got up rubbing their heads looking ill, gasping slightly Kallen said,

"It felt like...every person I've ever hurt...minor slights...people I killed...demanded I pay at once..." The others agreed and C.C. quirked an eyebrow at Nunnally.

"Absolute Penance...haven't seen that one since the dark ages...long made short kiddo everyone connected to the collective unconsciousness collects resentment from those they wrong, a kind of retribution buffer if you will, your Geass exposes the target to all that resentment, the more people they hurt the more painful it is. Plus side you clear the buffer so to speak when you cast your Geass so as soon as you cut it off they're safe until they do something to hurt another person". C.C. looked thoughtful, surprise still evident on her face. "I'm...honestly shocked, last person that took that was a Templar and he was a religious fanatic...anyway you're good your family can't be hurt by it again, you cut it off way before the nasty started." She turned to Suzaku who looked far from his formerly healthy pallor,

"I...ok...they all took it so I might as well...do it witch", Luckily for him his connection was similar to Kallen's and his promise was equally strait forward unlike the twins,

"So...you constantly hide in the shadows, having to disguise your feelings and ambitions to keep yourself and your family safe, to avoid the reprecussions of who you were born as...my contract with you is you must admit your feelings to the woman you love within the next year, do you accept this?". It says alot about the mans resolve that he seriously considered telling her to fuck off...but remembering those he loved, and lost, and his country enslaved...he sighed and sadly responded,

"I accept...witch", with that he was back with the others, dispondently avoiding Luluka's gaze he cast his Geass and the entire group gasped in shock, Nunnally being the first to speak.

"Did...did Godzilla just appear in the corner tearing into the left over pizza?!" Her voice quavering.

"Yes...yes he did" Lelouch responded as he looked at Suzaku, the witch was chuckling again, which he was starting to find incredibly annoying.

"Absolute Illusion, fitting for someone hiding in plain sight, that one should be fun for you young man." The limette stretched languidly as she shot up, "Its quite late and you all have school in the morning...how novel. I suggest we get some rest and go over this all tomorrow, agreed?"

With that the group split up, Lelouch and Kallen went off to their room as the others headed to their own, Luluka was stripped down to her underwear when she jumped into her bed sighing contentedly, glad the day was finally over and trying not to think about the fact she had to be up in four hours. As she mulled the benefits to sleeping pills and caffeine she felt a weight shift in her bed, turning she found the green haired witch nose to nose to her. Sighing inwardly she asked,

"And what do you think you're doing?" The golden eyed temptress just smirked and said

"Well since Lelouch is taken I figured I'd use the single twins bed" Luluka quirked an eyebrow while thinking 'I may not swing that way but I grew up with Milly 'fucking' Ashford, if you think for one second you're unsettling me you're sorely mistaken', with that thought finished she grabbed C.C. and pulled her close.

"Your mistake witch, I'm a cuddler.

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**Edit Note: Gah, fixed some very glaring errors and I'm sure I missed even more, I really need to lock my friend in a small room and force him to beta read these things for me, anyway hopefully chapter 10 will be up tonight, I'm having alot of fun writing this and its starting to seriously jump the tracks from canon.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry my lovelies I had a severe case of writers block and I _still_ dislike this chapter, hopefully the next one will be better...I've been up for 32 hours and I'm not thinking clearly hopefully this makes sense. On an unrelated note I'm looking for a beta reader to fix my horrendous format issues, send me a PM if you're interested**

**Edit: Apparently I posted an earlier draft of the Euphemia scene, fixed and its a bit more fleshed out and has fewer grammatical errors, sorry about that.**

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_**Middle Eastern Federation April 20 2017, G1 Forward Base**_

Cornelia Li Britannia had a massive headache, namely this sandbox country and its religiously fanatic people, just like every other Area she conquered it would have gone so much smoother if she just heaped on the oppression and cranked the Tyrant up to 11. Unfortunately that just wasn't how she did things, not since Japan, not since she saw the horrors her still lost siblings had to fight through to survive, it was a weakness but at least her most loyal men understood. What it came down to was she just didn't have the zeal to throw herself into conquering for a nation that had turned against her family, so she was stuck doing things the long way for now.

As she mulled over the idea of carpet bombing an oasis just to see it burn she received a priority message from the Prime Minister himself, adjusting the lapels of her uniform she hit 'Accept Call' and smiled to her brother.

"Hello Schneizel, its been awhile, if you're looking for a progress report I should be done here within the month, so long as the EU stops airdropping those Wal-Mart Knightmares for 'Humanitarian aid' anyway." Schneizel returned the smile and gave her a slight bow of his head,

"Always a pleasure to see your radiance dear sister, and it pleases me you are nearly done with your operations because, to put it simply Clovis...fucked up hard." Cornelia raised an eyebrow at her normally collected brothers use of profanity,

"And what did our dandy of a brother do?" Schneizel sighed rubbing his temples,

"For starters? Sponsoring live human experimentation in an attempt to discover immortality, then disguising the project as a chemical weapons program, then having the local terrorists stealing it from him because-" Cornelia interrupted him

"Because Clovis shouldn't be trusted with a wiffleball bat much less poisonous gas." Schneizel smirked and nodded in agreement,

"On top of all of that he lost his _entire_ honor guard plus the Viceroys Palace Garrison to three modified Gloucester's who then proceeded to kill Luciano Bradley and make off with the prototype Seventh generation Knightmare frame he had been piloting. On that note I need to have a word with Bismarck on who he lets near my projects, moving onward to add insult to injury the terrorists had pilots sitting in waiting who made off with 30 of the honor guards personal Sutherlands."

Cornelia's jaw was hanging open her brain having difficulties comprehending the shear amount of incompetence necessary to lead her younger brother down this path, before she could formulate a response Schneizel continued,

"And to finish it all off the terrorists managed to infiltrate his G1, empty the hard drives, kill the entire crew and set the base to self destruct with Clovis locked inside...they're selling recordings of him begging for his life on street corners..." Face now firmly in her hands she groaned miserably sliding them down her pale face, oh this is just lovely.

"Am I to assume you wish for me to be Area Elevens new Viceroy brother?" Schneizel nodded

"Until you get here I'm having Princess Carine and her pet bulldog Calares hold down the fort, not my first choice but they were in the vicinity of Area Eleven and since the entire top echelon is dead my options were limited." Grimacing at the thought of the obnoxious blood thirsty little trollop controlling her future command she made a request,

"Brother...Carine...is an idiot" he nodded in agreement "so I have a proposal, I've been grooming Euphemia for leadership for some time, she is not nearly as soft as everyone takes her for and making her _permanent_ Sub-Viceroy while Carine is the _temporary_ Viceroy would give her a leash to force Carine to heel from her more insane decisions while also allowing her to save face."

Schneizel contemplated this then smiled, "A splendid plan dear sister."

_**Ashford Acadamy Student Council Room April 22 2017 A.T.B**_

There are certain situations and events where the average person will not question why it is happening, either out of respect, fear, or just accepting that its simply 'weird' and moving on, Luluka Lamperouge sprinting towards the student council building grinning maniacally with a fit of the giggles was one such event. As she reached the double doors she shoulder checked them open hardly losing any momentum, nearly hitting the wall she took a sharp 90 degree turn towards her families suite of rooms and she busted in on a very surprised Lelouch and Milly causing them to spill their tea. She just stood there for roughly half a minute gasping for breath and giggling weathering the bemused expressions from the pair, finally getting control over herself yet still grinning she shared her news.

"Guys...guys hehehe...heh...guess who the new Viceroy is?" Lelouch's demeanor cooled slightly as he motioned her to continue, "Our sister Cornelia and the sub will be Euphemia!", her brother didn't seem amused in the slightest.

"I ...fail to see how having one of the most competent military minds in the Empire at our doorstep is a good thing Lulu." At that she broke out giggling again trying very hard to regain her composure, she threw the intercepted report on the table and continued.

"Its bloody amazing because she's bogged down fighting in the middle east for at least another month, until that point our lovely sister _Carine_ will be put in charge!" Lelouch looked blank for a moment then broke down laughing just as his sister had, she grinned wider and said "I know right!?" Milly for her part looked very confused and spoke up.

"I'm sorry I never really interacted with her back in Pendragon, why is this so funny?" Wiping tears from his eyes Lelouch fixed his longtime friend with a mirthful smile,

"Its bloody hilarious because she has all of Clovis's incompetence mixed with insane blood lust and a complete and total inability to lead an army to victory unless she has overwhelming numbers on her side, I can only imagine she was put in charge because she was the only royal available." Luluka continued for him while plopping into a vacant seat stealing Lelouch's last biscuit.

"Shes a git, completely unsuited for leadership, even as little kids she would try to start fights with anyone, hells bells she pissed off Nunnally enough to slug her in the mouth once and that was pre-murder machine days by the way. Duke Calares is riding her coat tails and he's...a middling leader, he has led a few successful campaigns but he is largely an egotistical self centered bigot, so he gets along with Carine just fine." While Milly chewed over that Lelouch stood up and started pacing his infectious smirk frozen in place, this was amazingly good news, with that ax-crazy teeny bopper floundering around making Britannia look even worse they'd be free to operate without any real fear. He stopped pacing and made eye contact with his sister, he smiled malevolently and said, "I do believe it may be time to initiate Operation ZERO sister." She grinned back and replied "You do look amazing in an opera suit brother".

_**Tokyo Settlement Viceroy's Palace April 25 2017 A.T.B**_

Euphimia Li Britannia poured herself another glass of brandy while her drinking partner downed her fifth shot of bourbon, the princess watching as the exotic knight held the bridge of her nose in consternation, willing the glorious poison to do its job. Three days ago Euphia had arrived to take control from the interim Viceroy who happened to be the only surviving member of Clovis's command staff, and while initially taciturn Villetta Nu was a consummate professional who had held chaos and anarchy at bay until the trained politicians took over. They had broadly outlined the best way to minimize the damage done by the Shinijuku incident and re-establish the damaged military presence, this lasted roughly 12 hours until her sister Carine showed up. After repeated attempts to have Villette arrested to be used as a scapegoat, demands to burn down the ghetto Clovis died in, and an insistence her royal guard be composed solely of male, blond virgins, the diminutive little psychopath had forced her two temporary subordinates into a friendship forged in mutual misery.

Villette rolled her empty glass between her long fingers and sighed, "Yer..highness...we're in more trouble then I thought.",

Euphemia sighed and corrected her new friend again, "I told you before Lette its Euphia," the silver haired woman nodded and replied

"Yer Euphiness we're in trouble...the crazy little harlot requisitioned 2,000 troops from the outer... building...collection...things...the big things people live in",

Euphia hand shot up and pointed her finger at the older woman "CITIES!" she chirped happily.

"RIGHT!" She replied smiling "She pulled troops out of the outer cities to reinforce Tokyo to burn down the Saitama ghetto tonight and bloody _announced_ it as a televised event". At this Euphemia finished off her glass and stared blankly at the mirror behind the bar, lamenting the fact that three days under her little sisters regime had driven her to amateur alcoholism, realizing her friend was waiting for a response she shrugged.

"She wants to draw in the group who took Clovis out and take all credit for it, I'm under orders from Cornelia to and I quote 'keep your frilly pink ass in the palace while Carine gets herself killed' so here I am... not stopping it...ugh" Pouring the rest of the bottle into her glass she toasted her inebriated companion and said "Cheers, may the next replacement Viceroy learn from violent death."

Villetta snorted, toasted back and downed the drink, "Princess take it from a experienced soldier, she just played right into the terrorists hands, this has only just started". She placed the shot glass down and sighed rubbing her eyes, glancing back at the inebriated royal, "If that girl had half your class, a quarter of your wit, and an iota of your intelligence these jokers might actually get taken out tonight, as it stands the obituaries are going to be very full tomorrow."

As the pink princess thumped her head against the table she mumbled, "I know...I just wish so many good soldiers didn't have to die for one idiots whims", and with that she passed out not seeing Villetta nodding sadly in agreement.

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**Second Authors Note-I rewrote this chapter 4 times, every iteration trying to characterize Carine as the bloodthirsty nutter I envisioned her as and none of it fit right, so instead I took two characters I already liked, seasoned them with a healthy amount of jaded and have them roll a running commentary on the temporary Viceroy, MST3K style. **

**My Euphia has known her siblings are likely alive and were targeted by her own government since she was thirteen when Cornelia thought she was old enough to know. She is still a sweet girl but she is bitter about the whole thing and since she isn't being constantly coddled by an over protective older sister she is a bit more seasoned and world weary. **

**Villetta was literally the only surviving officer from Clovis's staff after Shinjiku, so she was forced to take control of an entire nation and did a goddamn good job for someone with a major concussion, then a spoiled princess showed up, threw away everything she did and repeatedly tried to have her executed like the Purebloods attempt with Suzaku in the main timeline, luckily Euphia won't have any of that noise. I'm setting up a fun little dynamic between these two because honestly I've never seen it explored before and it might be fun, as always your input is desired, lemme know how badly I screwed up!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author note: Since I was completely unimpressed with my work in the last chapter I kind of threw my all into this one...and mildly depressed myself writing Nunnally's lines. Also folks, PLEASE review, I need to know people actually care about this to get the gumption to keep writing plus I need the constructive criticism and or praise...what I'm allowed to be shallow**

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_**Tokyo Settlement Safehouse April 24 2017 A.T.B**_

The leaders of Lelouch's various cells had met to confer on a course of action following Carine's insane declaration of burning down the Saitama ghetto, the consensus being evacuation and fortification. Luluko had vehemently insisted they drop the hammer on the extermination force, an all out purge with the entire secret might of the Black Knights, and while everyone agreed hitting them with 700 Knightmares would be hilarious it would also expose them as a legitimate threat and may call down the powers that be. She conceded the point when Suzaku proposed they use the Guran Mk. II, Lancelot, and the newly finished Valkyrie prototype to flaunt several messages on live television.

Suzaku coughed lightly and expanded on his plan, "See the way I look at it is exposing the Guran shows we're fully capable of designing and building our own seventh generation Knightmares, and when the public sees how Kallen can dance in the thing it will improve morale in the populace." This was met with several murmurs of agreement, feeling emboldened he continued, "Letting me field the Lancelot, an obviously Britannian machine will send the message that we can take their most advanced equipment and field it against them." Smirking over at Nunnally he finished with "And sending out the Valkyrie which is an obvious hybrid of the two designs is a massive 'fuck you', we stole your toy, and made it better." That got several laughs.

Inoue, the leader of the cell Ohgi had commandeered to hijack the Honor Guard Sutherland's interjected next, "I gotta admit as much as I want to pay those bastards back, Suzaku-sama, Kallen-sama, and Nunnally-san _annihilated _Clovis's forces single handidly, " she sighed and continued. "All they know we have are three frames and they never even saw Nunnally-sans, so my opinion is let them keep thinking our three aces are all we have until its too late for them to do anything about it." This led to some thoughtful side conversations before Tamaki interjected.

"Look, guys I know everyone thinks I'm a hothead but we can't just go rushing in there, this, the hell is her name again Lelouch?" Their boss smiled and replied

"Carine ni Britannia, pain in the ass extraordinaire." Tamaki nodded in thanks then continued,

"This Carine is obviously setting a trap, a bad one yeah, but even with the three hot rod prototypes we need to at least deploy those piece of crap Burai's the Kyoto group gave us, the ones with the SAM launchers? If nothing else we can deal with the gunships so the big guns can focus on killing another royal." Grunting in approval Minami looked towards Lelouch and added,

"Yeah we have umm...I believe 20 of those Glasgow knockoffs still, all of them set up for flyswatting, if Inoue and Sugiama's group can give us a bit of cover with their Sutherlands we can just circle around the exterior of the Ghetto and hit them before they even become a threat." Jeremiah smiled and said,

"We'll do you one better, Rakshata just finished the first pair of Gekka prototypes and cleared them for immediate field testing, apparently cracking open the Lancelot sped up the development process, so I propose that my wife and I run interference for anyone going after the SAM group." Luluko grinned wickedly while Nunnally exclaimed,

"Yay! I haven't gotten to see you and Sayoko-sama blow anything up in ages!" Sugiama raised his hand for attention and Lelouch gestured for him to proceed,

"Dunno if you remember Lelouch but our group still has a dozen VTOL Knightmare transports we ganked from Clovis six months ago, we could have Ohgi's group loaded up and hide below radar level, if we need it to rain men," he glanced to the ladies of the group "and women, they'll be a radio call away." Lelouch's grin was wide and enthusiastic,

"See this is why I have these meetings, all your plans are acceptable to degrees...except you Luluka, sorry but I promise you when we do expose our true numbers I'll let you scream 'Charge' on unencrypted channels," the group busted out laughing and Luluka just smiled and replied

"Damn well better." Lelouch pointed at Inoue and continued his thought,

"You're right in that we should limit our exposure, we'll do our best to keep the three beasts on the front of everyones mind and we'll only deploy the others if necessary. Honestly they already know we stole a couple dozen Sutherlands and every freedom fighter cell has a Burai or six so the numbers will add up well enough." She smiled at the recognition when Kallen finally spoke up,

"Ok, we do some good news on the battlefront, I own several clinics in that ghetto and they all have emergency entrances to the subway tunnels, Lord Ashford set them up like that on purpose, so if anyone has to eject from or abandon your frame look for any 'Kozuki Emergency Care' center and go through the orange doors, they'll lead the way." That little tidbit Lelouch hadn't expected but honestly his future wife was if nothing else full of wonderful surprises.

"Excellent love, glad someone in this relationship thinks ahead," blush from her, laugh from group, success he thought to himself. "Moving on Caleras will be leading this foray in a G1 and honestly their is only one place he can deploy it, so I'll be ordering a few surprised to be left under the street." He glanced at the map and shrugged, "As much as I dislike dismissing an opponent out of turn I know exactly where to plant the explosives to ruin his day, I'll draft formal orders but until then you all know what to do, dismissed."

_**Ashford Academy Lamprouge Wing April 24 2017 A.T.B**_  
'Marianne?' C.C. thought out, there was a long pause then a bubbly,

'C.C. you're back! Where the hell have you been its so boring having to sit in a teenage girls head!' C.C. smirked at this and replied

'Your husbands idiot son Clovis had me locked up to figure out my immortality, moron' She felt anger from her former contractor at this,

'Oh that freaking hair spray addicted fool...so how did you get out?' Grinning wider then even she thought possible she dropped the bomb,

'It was all fairly dramatic, see Lelouch and Luluka sprung me by accident since they are leading a rebellion against Britannia after the OSI tried to have them killed to start the war in Japan, they aren't happy about that by the way.' Marianne just stuttered

'Wha...wha...wh?!' Enjoying herself thoroughly C.C. pressed on,

'So anyway they heard Clovis's cover story and decided that the idiot should not have WMD's, they stole it, got surrounded, and needed to make a contract with me to survive, you would be so proud of them.' She said this bit with complete honesty, they were strong and...violent young people, before she could continue though Marianne asked,

'My...my babies are alive? What about Nunnally how is she?!' That diminished C.C.'s smile some,

'She's...hurt, bad in the head, whatever V.V. did to her on top of experiencing the war first hand has made her a bit sociopathic, the twins do their best to coddle her but she's...shes been killing people since the war, 10 soldiers in total with a goddamn spear when she was eight and she's an even better pilot then you were.'

'My poor girl' the long dead mother sobbed, she let her carry on for a bit before she continued

'Don't worry too hard dear, she's surrounded by people that love her including Luluka's unrequited love interest and Lelouch's fiance' she dangled that last bit like meat on a hook.

'FIANCE!? My little boy is engaged?! Who is this skank!?' C.C. was glad there was no one in the clubhouse to hear her cackling,

'Apparently he saved her from marauding Britannian soldiers who just got finished executing her family when they were ten, shot her would be executor in the throat.' More silence then she asked,

'Have any of my kids not killed?' C.C. snorted at that and didn't bother to answer,

'Anyway she's a gorgeous girl with massive...assets...shes a Duchess if that makes you feel any better and a very well respected one at that.' Fuck does she need to squeal like that...

'My boy knows how to pick 'em!, so wait...you said they're in a rebellion?' Sighing C.C. corrected her,

'No dear they _started_ a rebellion and honestly its a well organized one, he reminds me alot of Washington just with a snarky sister and helluva lot of ordnance, apparently V.V. has been sending assassins after him and his adoptive family for years under Charles name so pretty much they want to burn the nobility to the ground and use your hubby as a sacrifice to unite the world in peace.' C.C. winced as the screaming started,

'That cocksucking, motherfucking, jumped up hobgoblin bastard of a leprechaun! I knew it I fucking KNEW IT!' C.C. tuned her out as Marianne went on like this for 20 minutes, finally spent she received one last message from her old friend,

'I'm glad my kids were able to spring you algae head...I need to go have a word with my husband' and with that, she was gone.

_**Saitama Ghetto April 25 2017 A.T.B. 1 hour before operation**_

Nunnally stared at her midnight blue, black trimmed knightmare, never losing her eery grin, this was hers, design aesthetics from her natural heritage melded to her adopted culture. The outer armor resembling that of a dark knight, the horizontal slit across the face hiding the pair of glowing sanguine eyes, the fanned back bat like wings cresting the helm jutting outwards. It was smooth, angular, demonic, yet elegant, the slightly elongated arms hiding integrated VARIS cannons rather then radiation surgers, the MVS Naginata held in its clawed grasp as its snow white cloak billowed in the wind. This was hers. This WAS her, and she would show the world what happened to any fool who dared touch those she cared for or vowed to protect, still grinning she grabbed the ascension line and situated herself in the cockpit, booting up the Yggdrasil drive she settled into the unfamiliar motorbike seat and waited,

"Today...today the world will know what happens when they make a child murder her own innocence," still grinning she chose to ignore the tears that slide down her cheeks unbidden. "Yes...today...today the world will suffer as I have."

_**Saitama Ghetto April 25 2017 A.T.B. Operation commencing**_

To say that the invading Britannians were completely clueless as to what they were getting themselves into would more then likely be considered the understatement of the century, while they had prepared dozens of hovercams, newsmen, and other necessary propaganda devices one thing they forgot to consider was that the Japanese had televisions and they watched them. Soldiers slammed door after door open trying to find someone, _ANYONE_ to murder for the camera but it would appear that Clovis's retribution wasn't to be, the announced slaughter having let the attentive viewers know to run. As thousands of infantry and hundreds of Knightmares spread through the abandoned neighborhood Carine was getting more agitated. She spun on Caleras and screeched,

"We're supposed to be murdering some fucking Elevens! Where are they!? I swear if I went to the trouble of getting that sixth gen frame and I don't get to use it I'm executing someone myself!" The uneasy bridge crew of the G1 tried their best to ignore the outburst knowing full well she was serious, before things got anymore tense they got a ping.

"Your highness we have located one target, he is...standing on the remains of that skyscraper," The soldier zoomed in on the target and Carine ordered the news guy...the fuck was his name...right Dietard Reed to send the hover cams in to record the first death. The masked man faced the camera and made a sweeping gesture with his hand,

"I, am ZERO! And it is I who killed Clovis for his meaningless murder of hundreds of Japanese, and it is for your similiar desires whore of the court that I will end your life tonight. Witness Japan my miracle, I will end this entire blasphemous army with only three units, watch, and regain your hope!" Carine was looking around slightly confused then spoke to Dietard,

"The hell was he saying, he was speaking in that Eleven gibberish wasn't he?" The blond man wasn't listening, he was watching enraptured as Zero pointed at the G1 base and in Britannian said,

"Bang!" Then the whole world shook.

_**Saitama Ghetto, a roof top**_

Tamaki had brought up a good point at the meeting and Le...pardon, 'Zero' had acknowledged this, but as Jeremiah pointed out later 20 SAM platforms were pointless for a woman who didn't recognize the benefits of air support, her constant losses in Korea had proven that. So with this in mind half the Burai's had been equipped with heavy duty HEAT rounds and had their firing solutions linked to a painting laser, which Tamaki currently had aimed at the G1. Holding his breath and barely restraining the urge to pull the trigger he had to calm himself waiting for the signal,

"Can't mess this up man" he muttered to himself, "If you screw this up one of your closest friends may stop hanging out with you, hell Lelouch was the only one in the entire group who liked going to baseball games so if I fuck this up for him..." and there was the signal, at the word 'Whore' he mashed down the trigger and let the missiles fly. The timing couldn't be more perfect, as Zero said,

"Bang" the missiles slammed in from above and the mines in the sewers detonated from below dropped the G1 and its escort frames 10 meters into the pavement on fire. Tossing the painter aside Tamaki ran to the ladder and slid down into the tunnel leading back into the Tokyo settlement making sure the special laser painter Zero prepared for him was secured, Tamaki took off on his motorcycle laughing like a mad man.

_**Saitama Ghetto Awaiting Retribution**_

It was time, as the explosions occurred the flood lamps they had set up prior to the operation turned on exposing the kneeling forms of the Guren, Lancelot, and Valkyrie, dozens of cam-bots watched as these three machines stood up brandishing their weapons. The startled Sutherland's only looked on at first confused at the appearance of the white, red, and blue Knightmares, then the Guren projected a radiation wave killing 5 frames, the Lancelot snapped off 4 shots killing an equal number of Britannians and the Valkyrie charged forward slicing through three with its naginata and blasting 2 others with its left arms VARIS cannon. Chaos followed, Nunnally didn't know why but this felt different then before, hell it was easier then ever, she'd been involved with a dozen minor operations and no one could touch her before but now, it was like she was playing one of Suzu's hack and slash games. These weren't people, they were monsters who wanted to hurt her and her family, but it felt like she was stomping on mice, grabbing one frames forearm she swing it over her head slamming it into a pair of its friends and before they could even attempt to get back up she sprayed them with VARIS rounds. It took 16 more points for her to realize she was crying, she was crying because she had become the enemies monster, she was the thing that mothers told their children would bite them if they didn't go to bed on time. She was...

"I'm...I'm a demon...I'm...evil" She said softly while sobbing, she was startled when she heard Nii-Chan's voice on her private channel

"No little one...you're not a demon...your the end result of the demons my lovely little sister, they hurt you so much trying to break you, break your resolve, ruin who you were, and the only thing they broke was your pity for them." She heard her older sister sigh then continue "You're a force of nature now, even sobbing, lamenting what these _bastards_ made you into you're still able to scythe through them like wheat, you're not evil, you're not a demon my little crane...you're strong, you're a protector, and you'll keep on protecting...and if ya don't I'll kick your ass" Sobbing a laugh Nunnally sliced through a charging Knight Police and replied

"Yes ma'am...and thankyou Nee-chan...for not giving up on me" A chuckle was her only reply

"Ditto to you kiddo, ditto."

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**To those curious about the design aesthetics of the Valkyrie think the Ebony armor from Skyrim with slightly longer thicker forearms to house the VARIS cannons, which fire from the palm, it has a Gloucester style cape but its pure white with the Black Knights crest sewn in the center, main armament is an MVS Naginata and a pair of MVS short swords stored on the hips.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author Note: As always please throw some reviews my way good or bad, I really want to know what people think about my work. This chapter is probably the cleanest insofar as grammar and punctuation go, I'm sure its still not up to some people standards but meh, I'm having fun. Also to answer a couple PM's at once I'm not really focusing on Kallen, Suzaku, and Nunnally slaughtering mooks because they're slaughtering mooks, looks cool on screen tediously repetitive to write about. And as far as Tamaki goes he's mildly serious because it amuses me, there is no other reason.**

**Edit:Fixed a silly mistake with the Kamine Island thing, le sigh**

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_**Viceroy Palace April 25 2017 A.T.B**_

Luluka let out a long sigh after she said "Ditto to you kiddo, ditto" and forced herself to regain her composure, she pushed the constant connection she had to Nunnally's comm unit aside and continued her mission. She was wearing the standard outfit for female base personnel, her hair up in a bun and her haptic interface glasses perched imperiously on the tip of her nose, Kallen had told her she looked like a bond villain in the getup which was very sweet of her. Following the path being projected directly into her eyes she twitched her fingers switching comm channels to that of the Black Knights, timing was everything and she couldn't be distracted by the worry she had for her little sister.

Turning the corner she heard a familiar, if slurring voice coming from the officers lounge, peaking in she saw Euphemia li Britannia of all people holding an empty glass neighboring an equally empty bottle of high shelf brandy. Next to the pinkette was the woman from Shinjuku that Luluka had brained, rubbing Euphia's back trying to get her to drink some water... 'SHIT!' she screamed in her mind, nothing can be easy can it? Continuing on she made it to the central computer hub, activating her Geass she simply walked past the guard taking his keycard and opened the door, walking in like she owned the place she slapped a block of C4 on the central server and set the timer for two minutes. Hurrying out as her Geass started to make her eyes throb she made it out of sight of the guard just in time to drop her power, 'Ok yeah' she thought 'Gonna have a migraine from that one'

Moving back down the corridor she stopped before passing in front of the lounge, she waited until the distant explosion fried every computer system in the facility activating the fire alarms and sprinklers. 'This is stupid this is sooooo fucking stupid' she screamed to herself as she popped into the room and addressed the pair of inebriated women,

"Quick the terrorists are setting off bombs we need to get the princess out of here immediately!" Thankfully the former Pureblood remembered her duty even in her sloshed state and helped Luluka drag her half sister out of the opulent mansion/command center. The rush of the human wave running from the "terrorist attack" carried them to the front door and they got the tipsy royal away from any further danger, Euphemia turned and stared Luluka in the eyes then said

"Hey yer awfully pretty, you know that...wait do I know you? You look alot like..." annnnnd then she threw up all over Luluka's boots, 'That's just...wonderful' she thought. Excusing herself from her half sisters ongoing drunken misadventures and ignoring Viletta's thank you the fake petty officer briskly walked towards the Camelot trailer. Thinking nothing of the abrupt departure Viletta tried to force more of her water bottles contents down the giggling royals throat, wondering if this night could get any more complicated.

_**Saitama Ghetto April 25 2017 A.T.B**_

Lelouch's impromptu speech had really been meaningless, he'd spoken in Japanese specifically to get the downtrodden Elevens to pay attention to the broadcast and on the same note annoy his ignorant half sister. He may be a philanthropic revolutionary but he was not above being petty thank you very much, twitching his eyes over his masks HUD he received the signal that Luluka's mission had been complete. Grinning maliciously he keyed in to the three figures demolishing the purge force below,

"Guys we're go for Operation Mjolnir, I'm activating our asset now." He received three double click confirmations then emailed the newest contact on his cell, on the other side of the battlefield in the now brutalized G1 Duke Caleras received a message on his PDA 'Begin phase one'. Eyes glowing with a distinctive red ring around his irises he stood up helping support the disoriented Carine as he bellowed,

"Send in the gunships, I want this entire filth ridden ghetto burned!", the communications officer scrambled to relay the order then announced,

"ETA 5 minutes my lord."

With that the three dozen VTOL gunships on standby where en route towards the melee, unnoticed by them were the ten SAM equipped Burai's under Minami's command, who was honestly quite nervous. SAM units were essentially defenseless outside of their intended purpose, the hardpoints on their cockpit blocks each held a single surface to air missile pod and the rotating collar that replaced each arm holding three more. Snorting to himself he couldn't help but mutter,

"Lucky for us we're fighting a group of idiots that think we're animals and didn't bother with a rearguard." Not realizing he had broadcast this his second in command chuckled and connected a video window, Jeffrey Everett Tyler's dark skin contrasting dramatically with his white smile as he replied.

"Heh, no joke, seriously if you aren't a royal or a nobleman you're as dumb as they come in their book..., oh hey incoming bud, lets do this." With that his Britannian subordinate cut the signal and activated the RADAR dome in place of his Burai's head. Dozens of signals lit up his screen at once all coming directly towards them in one sweeping wave, not able to maintain his composure Minami had to snark out,

"Oh yes clump together in one huge group so only one wave at a time can fire and you cannot perform evasive maneuvers, flanking is for pussies apparently." Jeffrey, or rather Jet as his friends called him started laughing when he asked the question of his heart,

"Mini...please please please buddy lemme give the order," smirking at the young man's excitement Minami laughed then gave his assent. With a very manly giggle Jet bellowed, "Knock 'em out of the sky ladies and gentlemen!" And in less then thirty seconds all air support for the genocidal purge was lost.

Back in the G1 Carine was going absolutely ballistic at the loss of their gunships and even with the Geass over himself Caleras was annoyed, the whiny little royal was the one who insisted they didn't need air cover, the only reason they had what they did was because Euphemia had insisted on it, lot of good it did anyhow. Choosing to not air that revelation Caleras received his final message. Glancing at the PDA he read "And I Saw a Pale Horse", eyes glowing unnoticed he grit his teeth and ordered,

"Contact the IMS Indomitable and order it to fire on the quadrent the three terrorist Knightmares are fighting in!" The room went dead silent, one of his aides actually had to the courage to question him,

"My lord, what about our soldiers on the ground? There are still over 1,500 troopers plus our knightmares out the-"

Caleras pulled out his sidearm and shot the woman in the head, all other arguments ended before they began, Carine was grinning at Caleras and nodded her head in agreement,

"Fuck 'em all we can always order more soldiers, drop the monkeys with thunderclaps," with that the massive Ranger class missile cruiser parked in Tokyo bay fired four cruise missiles at the ghetto.

_**Outside the Viceroy Palace**_

Tamaki pulled his motorcycle into an alley and cracked open the dead drop awaiting him, donning the emergency response gear and setting the face concealing respirator in place he waited for the fun to start. Not five minutes later amidst the panic he heard from the other side of the wall he saw the gates open as several firetrucks, Knight Police, and ambulances pulled up to enter the compound. Shifting the short tube in his hands he pulled the fire extinguisher from its canvas bag and followed the group of similarly dressed emergency responders into the belly of the beast.

_**Saitama Ghetto**_

The roar of the missiles could be heard in the distance, Lelouch watched with a contemptuous grin on his face twirling the King piece in his left hand at blurring speeds. As the missiles sped towards the ghetto they overshot their target and kept moving on a coarse towards the Tokyo Settlement, he let out a well earned cackle as he whispered,

"Dance puppets, dance."

_**Viceroy Palace Front Gardens**_

Every modern facility that maintains a conquered territory is protected with state of the art defenses, camouflaged retractable anti-personnel guns and mines, hidden elevator lifts to launch Knightmares, electronic countermeasures to spoof missiles, and dozens of CIWS guns to swat unguided rockets out of the air. This is all controlled by the equally state of the art central computer held in a secured armored room in the dead center of the building, unfortunately for this particular base the control room was currently blown up and on fire.

Tamaki casually swung up the painting laser concealed in his fire extinguisher and pointed the lens at the palace, 20 seconds later 4 thunderclap missiles slammed into the residence turning it into a massive greasy fireball. Pulling himself up off the ground shaking off the effect of the explosion he walked away from the burning wreckage as casually as possible, exiting the front gates he thanked his lucky stars the bulky respirator hid his laughing.

_**Saitama Ghetto**_

Lelouch gazed upon his kingdom of death, men and women falling by the dozens by his command, and in truth it did bother him to an extent, most of these people were in fact just doing a job. These weren't the same sycophants who had invaded Japan and tried to murder his family, the first invasion forces were Britannia's rabid dogs, those lusting for destruction, rape, and looting, garrison forces were just working for a pay check. So unlike his Japanese cohorts he didn't revel in the slaughter, he just accepted it as a fact of war and filed it away in the hole that use to contain his empathy. Shifting his gaze from the chaos his family was causing he made the decision to end this charade, opening a channel to Ohgi he said,

"B1, deploy your Knightmares to flank the remaining forces, spare any ground crew that surrender no need to make this more of a slaughter, R1 and R2 you're to make sure the kids don't bite off more then they can chew" with a "Roger", "Yes my lord" and a "Hai!" his orders where fulfilled, switching channels to Inoue's group he commed, "B3 take your unit and escort B4's flyswatters back to base, you're weapons free to deal with any stragglers that get in your way, Zero out".

He lifted his mask just enough to smell the battlefield, even up here he could smell the smoke, dust and blood, grimacing at the memories it stirred he let the mask fall back into place. Staring at the derelict G1 he glared at it with pure malice, as if he could see the bloodthirsty witch through the cracked armor walls, "Time for you to pay for what you wanted little sister..." he switched over to all open channels and keyed the comm

"The ultimate high as all beautiful dies, a rulers tool, a priests excuse, a tyrants delight, see what you've wrought upon your own subjects Carine, watch as all your hope dies." Pinging Nunnally's Valkyrie he ordered her to approach the G1 as he continued his broadcast, "tonight you meet your end Massacre Princess, it is your choice whether it is as a sow in a burning stall or as a soldier on her steed." With that he cut the comm and and made his way down the wrecked buildings stairs not noticing that he was being followed by one of the news station hover cams.

_**Viceroy Palace Crater Outskirts **_

Luluka walked into the Special Envoys trailer startling the two scientists huddled over a terminal, she feigned shock and stuttered out,

"Ter... terrorists just se.. set a bomb of.. of.. off in the Palace! I was ordered to chec-" and then boom, even with the doors sealed the shock of the explosion was enough to set her ears ringing as the pressure wave sent all three flying. The man groggily stood helping his compatriot up, she was bleeding from a cut on her head but looked all right. Luluka hated to admit it but damn that one rattled her, was not expecting quite so much boom, she'd have to have a word with her brother.

"Cecile my dear are you all right?" The man asked earnestly, this for some reason seemed to startle Cecile, huh, weird. The woman looked even more flummoxed when the other scientist tore a strip from his jacket and wrapped the head wound helping her up.

"I...I'm fine Lloyd, thank you very much" she said smiling, 'Ah hell did I just walk in on another soap opera? Sigh...get enough of this crap at home', with that she finally was able to stand up. Lloyd walked over to the main hanger to see a large piece of marble crashed through the door and planted firmly into the bay.

"Well...at least we already transferred the Gawain to Kamine island...would hate to lose another prototype to the terrorists." Cecile replied to him as she was checking Luluka over for injuries,

"Yes, losing the Lancelot was only made bearable because it got rid of Bradley, if we lost the Gawain for nothing...I doubt the prince would be happy." Interesting, most interesting, Luluka filed away all these juicy little tidbits for later, either these two were the most trusting flaky scientists in the world or they were as equally jittered as she was from the explosion, maybe both.

"Cecile, take a look" her partner stated staring out the massive hole in their trailer, as she moved towards him Luluka flared her Geass and ran to the computer that was as luck would have it unlocked. She jammed the datastick into the port and started an information dump, she limped back to the odd couple and dropped her Geass, peaking around the corner of the rended metal she gasped. The palace was gone, either completely annihilated or collapsed into itself she couldn't tell, silently hoping she got Euphia far enough away she couldn't help but quip,

"Now that is a big goddamn hole," luckily for her they hadn't picked up her tone of satisfaction, Lloyd simply nodded and Cecile responded with,

"Well...it was an incredibly ugly building anyway..." staring at the two scientists cockeyed she vaguely wondered if she could keep them, they were her kind of crazy. Looking back at the computer the light on the data stick flickered to green, transfer complete, once again casting her Geass she rushed over, nabbed her prize and got back behind the pair before they noticed her missing. Mission accomplished she looked to Lloyd and said,

"So...got anything to drink in this thing?" Cecile snorted and motioned her towards the back of the lab.

"We're engineers working directly beneath the Prime Minister dear, of course we do, you like scotch?" Smiling Luluka thought 'Yup, totally wanna keep em'

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**Closing thoughts- I introduced the character Jet due to a few reasons, but mainly it comes down to wanting to introduce positive Britannian characters while having someone to base some of his idiosyncrasies on (mostly my friend who has a similar name structure that gave her a very unwanted nickname that will never go away). He won't be a major character but he'll be an interesting background one I hope, time will tell.**

**Also, I'm seriously considering going back to earlier chapters and expanding them as well as fixing some of the more horrendous formatting issues they have, anyone think that's worth while?**


	13. Chapter 13

**Ok this is embarrassing as all hell but apparently for reasons unknown to me this chapter didn't save correctly and it got posted in its horribly written incomplete form, please reread at least the Luluka segments they're significantly different and way more polished. That...and the entire interaction between C.C. and Lelouch was lost so there went roughly 700 words, thats nice. Anyway this is the finished product and I hope I didn't scare anyone off with that crap from earlier, that being said REVIEW MY MINIONS REVIEW!**

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_**On the Grounds Before the Derelict G1 Fortress**_

Nunnally waited. It wasn't anything new for her, she waited for alot of things, for the pain in her eyes to subside every morning for starters, or for her family to finish their classes so they could spend time together, things like that. There was also the truly arduous things, like waiting for her anti-psychotic meds to kick in, that was always fun keeping the demons at bay until the wonderful chemicals banished them for a blessed few hours. Those were all normal things she waited on, in this moment though she was waiting to murder her sister, well... murder is a strong word, 'strike down with extreme prejudice in a one on one dual' would probably fit better. Carine was taking an awfully long time to get out of her bang-jacked G1 though, and while Nunnally was never bored (how can you be bored when you had so much paper for origami?) she _was_ growing restless, thankfully she saw the top hatch on the demolished land battleship flex.

With a series of deep resounding thuds she watched as the four inch thick steel plate go flying off its hinge and a magenta frame with fluorescent purple trim crawled out, 'That...is the most hideous color scheme ever' she thought with a grimace. The frame itself was rather interesting though, it looked like a squatter version of the Lancelot with a Gloucester's head, it wielded what looked like a buckler shield in its left hand with several thick cables leading up the arm into the torso, in its right it held a standard golden lance. At one point it may have had a cape but it looked like it had caught on fire during the bombardment, the charred brackets on its shoulders the only indicator, Nunnally was running through her mind on what this thing was then it hit her, she grinned as she hit the open broadcast button.

"Ah, so you got your hands on the Blaze Luminous sixth generation prototype, the 'Aegis' I believe it was called, very cool, out of date but still cool." The opposing Princess was not amused by this observation, ignoring Nunnally's jab she sent a signal back to the G1's bridge,

"Ried, you broadcasting this? I want all of Area Eleven to see me end this bitch," she received an affirmative from the media mogul so she stepped forward twirling her lance dramatically, "You die now Eleven!"

The giggling on the comm _probably_ didn't help matters but Nunnally couldn't help herself, performing an infinitely more complex set of kata with her Naginata she finished with a flourish keeping the staff above her head and using the free hand to make a 'come hither' motion.

"Oh spunky little Carine, the fact that you assume only Elevens would resist your bullshit is just adorable, but enough of that, have at you!" And so Nunnally charged, grinning like a madwomen and enjoying every bloody second of her dance. She had to admit Carine wasn't bad, she wasn't good either but you can't have it all, she didn't really do the whole parry thing, mostly aggressive jabs then a juke to the left and right. "Pff...with that predictable footwork its a wonder a Gun-Ru hasn't taken you out yet, mix it up girl!" Nunnally said as she fired a couple VARIS rounds to rattle the other princess.

As she expected, she juked left then right, while she was still in her followup motion Nunnally fired all six of her slash harkens at once knocking the other frame over, she growled with frustration, this wasn't a fight this was toying with a confused kitten. Rushing forward she brought her blade down on the Aegis's head only to have a semitransparent hemisphere of green light block the blow. "Finally" she groused, took her long enough to use the tricks her unit allowed, performing a simple figure eight maneuver around the Aegis Nunnaly's Valkyrie made a quick jab and cut its head off.

"YOU DIE NOW WHORE!" The now enraged Carine screamed charging at Nunnally at full speed and slammed neck-stump first into a wall as her nemesis danced around the thrust, Nunnally for her part was the bigger woman and didn't make any Loony Toons references despite this entire dual degrading to a goddamned joke, sighing she couldnt help but state,

"Are you even taking this seriously? Really? I mean I know you're a bit rattled with having your entire task force butchered but really, this is just as sad as a showing as Clovis...and he died screaming for his life in a metal coffin. You're not bleeding from two perforated knees though so thats a plus," with a twirl of her Naginata she swung down hard to bisect the enemy frame but it was able to swing the buckler up to project its shield blocking the blow.

"Yes like that!" Nunnally bellowed reeling backwards as Carine orientated herself and charged forward again, she started bellowing a war cry as the spines on her lance sprung forth, then Valkyries left leg sprung forward tripping the charging Aegis causing it to roll to a stop. Nunnally was incredulous, this girl wished to emulate Cornelia? Really? She waited as the damaged unit rose once again and the ranting voice finally mellowed out,

"I am Carine ne Britannia sixth princess of the court and I will not be beaten by an Eleven dog like you!" with that she charged blindly forward, again, and Nunnally decided she was finished playing, with that she sing-songed

"Bored now," as her Valkyrie reversed several feet out of the way, swinging her naginata down through the haft of the charging lance and continued the arc severing both feet while completing her 'U' curve and slicing the cockpit block off the back of the now flailing unit. With a horrendous crash the now shredded Aegis rolled to the ground for a final time and the mangled cockpit block followed Sir Issac Newtons First Law of Motion and continued to, pardon the pun, careen forward until it lost all forward momentum. Sighing contentedly Nunnally muttered

"Shouldn't have pulled my hair because brother Schneizel liked me more, bitch." Then left the rest to nii-san.

_**At the End of the Road of Defeat, G1 Base Wreck Area 11**_

Dietard Ried was playing maestro, while the entirety of the sunk G1 base had evacuated after Duke Caleras committed suicide he had stayed to adjust his cam-bots, following Zero and his cohorts annihilation of Carine's forces. As he witnessed the psychotic princesses defeat by the grey-blue caped knightmare his cams followed this amazing Zero character as he made his way to the shattered cockpit block, the Knightmare that had felled the princess stepped forward and tore one of the side panels off giving its master access to the royal within. Firing sound pickup darts across the area he listened and broadcasted what this revolutionary had to say to the fallen Princess, grinning all the while.

_**Witnessing the First Domino Fall, Saitamo Ghetto**_

Zero approached the injured Carine with a hint of trepidation, while Clovis had attempted to commit genocide and was well on his way to hell when he was stopped Carine wasn't actually given the chance to do as she planned.

"Can I honestly punish a girl for what she was going to do rather then for what she did?" He sighed not knowing the answer, oddly enough he received a response.

"That depends Zero, is it because she was an innocent if belligerent child last time you saw her or are you viewing the crimes from your current mindset? Are you looking at her like a big brother or a revolutionary?" As his fiance's voice rung through his helm he realized he was tainting his actions of justice with the echoes of the past, hardening himself to what had to be done he approached the fallen princess with Suzaku's katana in one hand and the pistol that crippled Clovis in the other. To her credit the Massacre Princess didn't shy away from the masked man, her face covered in tears of pain, not fear, he stood in front of her as she stared back stoically.

Lelouch for his part had no idea if anyone was recording this, he had to stay in character and it infuriated him, Carine had to die but she was still family and it felt wrong to kill her like this, taking a deep breath he addressed the injured Princess.

"Princess Carine ne Britannia, you stand accused of crimes against humanity, the attempted genocide of the Japanese of this ghetto and the deaths of all your men, as of my last update you are directly responsible for the deaths of 2,163 men, women and children although most of those casualties were your people, how do you plead?" Much to his surprise Carine hit the releases on her mangled harness and stumbled out of the savaged cockpit block, her gaze was blank, staring at the piles of dead royal marines, burning Sutherland's and slaughtered civilians. Laughing lightly she turned and addressed Zero,

"I'm guilty, this is all my doing, my men...the Elevens, this was all on me, please show the survivors the courtesy due to prisoners of war, I have nothing else to say Zero, I deserve my death." Lelouch was nonplussed, this wasn't what he expected from his bloodthirsty little sister, looking down at the diminutive princess he asked her a final question.

"Despite all you have done you chose honorable combat to decide your fate unlike your fool of a brother, you have earned a choice, would you like the quick death of commoner" He motioned towards his pistol "or would you prefer the death of a noble?" Swinging his sword in a riposte, "It is your choice Princess." With that Carine stared forward and smiled sadly.

"I earned a choice? I'm...honored Zero. " With that she fell to her knees and smiled towards her killer,

"Thank you, I would like the nobleman's death, if it would please my lord." Lelouch was fighting the urge to cry, and failing horribly, he cut his audio and sobbed loudly as he pulled his sword back and stabbed his little sister through the heart, as he pulled the blade out the dying Carine she grabbed Lelouch by the neck and whispered,

"Lelouch...protect that little bitch...she needs you more then evee..." and with that she was dead. Lelouch stood and flourished his sword, swinging Carine's blood across the ground as he headed toward his personal Knightmare, he set the destination and spent the rest of the time retching into a bag.

"What...what the fuck have I done? Why didn't it hurt like this with Clovis? How...how did she know it was me?" With that he headed back to base with a group of blood satiated knightmare pilots

_**Camelot trailer **_

Luluka emptied her most recent glass in a fit of...giggles...yuuuuup definitely giggles she thought with giddiness, 'Ohhhhh man what would brother say about me right now' she thought to herself, turning to Cecile she shook her glass.

"Ya know, subordinate or not I likes you two!" She announced with a purposefully pronounced slur. Grabbing the bottle of scotch she topped off Cecile's glass and as they went to toast surviving explody death for the fourth time the monitor covering most of the wall lit up startling the revelry, after a moment brother Schneizal appeared, grimacing.

"Earl...we have problem" With that both Lloyd and Cecil broke out giggling, less then a half second later Luluka followed their lead as she watched her older brother observing the room. He stared a moment longer then decided to continue, "With Carine's fall we need some sort of advanced unit to hold the terrorists back while Cornelia makes her way to Area Eleven and...are you even listening?" With that Lloyd broke out in more laughter,

"My Prince, your siblings have _literally_ made off with most of my research and equipment or as in the case of Bradley gave it away to terrorists, I have _nothing_ to offer you right now other then Gawain who is currently emulating a bloody office server on Kaminjima," Lloyd responded. Despite it all she really had grown a soft spot for this cheeky nutcase, Lloyd was hilarious and his assistant was adorable, and this little tirade could cause them trouble later, deciding that valor out weighed discretion she held up the data slate she had been browsing while turning her gaze towards the monitor.

"It appears they have nothing that can be used immediately" she said with the corner of her eye observing her brother, " He has the parts to convert a Sutherland frame into the Lancelot Club which, frankly is a hilariously under powered knockoff but its better then the alternative. That's it your highness, nothing more, it's your decision but these poor folks have been tapped out otherwise." With a heavy sigh Schneizal stated,

"I see, it couldn't hurt to have a stop gap and frankly we can't afford for this situation to get worse, go ahead with the converstion," he stated to the Earl who was grinning vacantly. Her brother seemed mildly disturbed by the lack of professionalism from his subordinates so he turned towards Luluka.

"You're not one of my regular soldiers, who are you?" Cursing enough internally that the devil was probably squirming she decided to bluff,

"Systems Analyst Marianne Franklin your highness, I was sent by dispatch to warn the Camelot Division about the terrorist attack on the Palace and order them to secure their trailer...not that it really matters currently. Please pardon my compatriots behavior we're completely useless to the cleanup crew and we barely survived a large piece of palace crushing the trailer, so we're celebrating being alive." Schneizal let out a long sigh at this addressing group,

"Very well I'll let the lack of...poise slide for the time being, that being said I have a task that needs accomplished immediately, I'm sure it will be difficult considering the current state of affairs but I need you to confirm if Princess Euphemia perished in the blast, I-" Luluka interrupted him

"I grabbed her and a subordinate out of the officers club on my way to Llo...Earl Asplund and Ms. Cecile here my lord, she's alive and last I checked completely tanked." Schneizal seemed to sink in on himself a bit gracing her with a rare smile,

"I owe you miss Franklin, thank you with all my heart for saving my little sister," Fuck, I'm blushing, shit shit shit...play the part of stuttering schoolgirl fool, like you need the help.

"Tha...thank you your highness." Nodding in acquiescence he turned back to Llloyd,

"The time for subtlety is over this group has completely outmatched and outwitted our forces twice now and is starting to make a habit of killing off royalty, Lloyd." He rose his voice a bit to get the distracted Earls attention, "The Stadtfeld Corporation is one of Britannia's best Knightmare Proving facilities, I want you to commandeer several of their assembly gantry's, I'll be authorizing enough funding that even that miser Ashford won't be able to turn you away. I want at _least_ three Lancelot class base frames built in the next two weeks and they better be good enough to face these monsters the terrorists are fielding, do I make myself clear?" A series of salutes and yes your highness's later the impromptu meeting was over, after saying her goodbyes to the oddball couple Luluka made her way out of there to relay the news, the Black Knights had finally caused a stir, and they could cause mischief with this new info.

_**Ashford Academy 2 hours after Carine's execution**_

C.C. hadn't been brought in on the mission for a couple reasons, mostly disinterest if she were going to be honest with herself, these internal conflicts grow tiresome after a few hundred years and she found going through her contractors personal belongings far more entertaining. She was sprawled upside down on the common room sofa with her head resting on the floor, while leafing through a magazine she had stolen from Luluka's room the panel leading to the hidden elevator slid open. She wasn't able to see who it was but the faint smell of liquor and cigarettes intrigued her enough to sit up and address the new arrival, what she saw was...surprising. Lelouch was resting his head against his arm leaning dejectedly against the elevator frame, a near empty bottle was dangling loosely from his free hand and the stump of a cigarette was smoldering at the corner of his mouth. He must have heard her shifting because he straitened up and stumbled out of the elevator shuffling towards the couch, stopping in front of the now uncomfortable immortal he stared at her blankly, growing more uneasy by the uncharacteristic behavior she hesitantly said,

"Lelouch, are you-" he interrupted her by downing the rest of the bottle and sitting heavily next to her,

"Before you get all worried about my drinking habits understand that these bloody implants are constantly filtering toxins from my blood, downing that bottle is like a normal person having a couple beers, another 'perk' of being born in the royal family. Family..bah...what tripe..." unsure what to say or what even led to this change in attitude she remained silent. "The worst part about all this" he continued "is that the Emperor's obsession with Social Darwinism is new, all previous rulers for the most part cared about all their children and didn't have _dozens of _spares so the game could keep going as the casualties piled up." He absently pulled another cigarette from his leather jackets pocket and lit it with his zippo, not knowing what else to do she responded with,

"Yes, he's certainly changed the face of the world with his ideals, but wha-"

"I killed my sister tonight, well one of them, think there's like 46 of them at this point, well 45 now...anyway I grew up with this one," he blurted out interrupting her.

"Ah, Carine, I saw it on television, they caught almost the entire conversation, the world doesn't know what to think of you, some think you're honorable, some think you're terrorist scum, some want to emulate, others wa-" he interrupted her again,

"I'm well aware of what the world is saying witch, there was a reason I didn't shoot down all those infernal cameras after all."

'Ah' she thought to herself smiling inwardly, 'now _that_ sounds like Lelouch." He continued on his tirade,

"When we left Clovis to die I felt nothing but disgust for the man, the boy I knew growing up had died a long time ago and I just helped his body catch up, but when I confronted Carine, that little psychotic ...bitch... didn't beg...not once. She acknowledged what she did, owned up to it, and had the grace to ask I spare her surviving men...then she thanked me, THANKED ME for giving her a choice on how I was to murder her...in her last minutes she knew who I was and asked me to take care of Nunnally...how did she figure that out? Why does this hurt despite me never liking her? Why does it hurt that she accepted her fate instead of begging?" Nodding in understanding C.C. wrapped her arm around her contractors shoulders,

"Its simple really, Your experiences as a child were all shaded with the need to survive, none of you were thinking clearly, starving, scared, hopped up on pain meds, those you killed weren't even registered because you were desperately scrambling to just stay alive. You've spent the past seven years convincing yourself you were fighting monsters, not people, but tonight you were finally confronted with the fact that your enemies are just as human as you are, everything she ever was and everything she ever could be was robbed from her in an instant. The shame, guilt, and sadness are you finally grasping what you've gotten yourself into, I'll say this about the old days at least there was no illusion that you were killing on a battlefield...Knightmares make it so impersonal...so clean." There was a comfortable silence for a time then he finally said,

"I do believe that is the most words I've ever heard you string together at once C.C., keep up the counseling and I may start considering you a dark angel on my shoulder." She snorted at that gently smacking the top of his head,

"I thought I was your witch," he smirked in return

"Well then I'll have to be your warlock then, fairs fair." For some reason that made her feel uncomfortably warm, hoping he didn't notice she clamped her mouth shut. He put out the cigarette while propping a window open, turning back to the limette he smiled, feeling slightly flustered she stuttered

"Wha..what?" still smiling he shook his head,

"Thanks for the reality check C.C., I needed it, by the by when Kallen sees that you're wearing her Daft Punk t-shirt I can pretty much guarantee she'll shoot you."

"Wouldn't that get blood on her shirt?" She replied with a coy smile, snorting he walked towards his room,

"I'm not the only one who kneecaps people in this family, night C.C. and...thanks again."

* * *

**Nunnally isn't the only one with issues, Lelouch and Luluka are both on anti-depressants, Suzaku self medicates on revenge and Kallen see's a counselor (not for her family dying, for dealing with Milly), i**sn't surviving a war you wanted nothing to do with wonderful? I felt things were a little too idyllic for the family so throwing in a bit of internal drama, that ought to be fun. ** Also this chapter was starting to get a bit long so Schneizal putting the pieces of Luluka's hilariously flimsy alias together will be for next time. **


	14. Chapter 14

**Don't forget to reread the last chapter if you read it the first day, that was an accidental rough draft issue and its now been replaced with something waaaaaaay better.**

* * *

_**In Transit Above the Atlantic**_

Cornelia was tapping her desk in frustrated worry, the monitor flashing "Attempting Connection" with pleasantly irritating music playing in the background, 'First action as Empress, kill whoever programmed this damn thing' she mused to herself. The computer then beeped with a flashing "Unable to Connect", letting out a sigh of barely contained rage she thought, 'Correction, kill them and their families", she dialed again staring into space. She, like most of the world had seen the recording of Carine's fall, including the hacked security camera's showing Calares' hijacked missiles reducing the Viceroy Palace to rubble, while not particularly caring that Carine was dead her actions had nearly killed Euphemia which was unacceptable. Hell's bells the only reason she wasn't in a highspeed interceptor flying at mach 10 with her hair on fire towards Area Eleven was Schneizel's assurance that Euphia had infact survived due to the quick thinking and loyalty of a random NCO. Her train of thought derailed as the image connected with her pink haired little sister.

Ephemia looked for lack of better words, like shit, her bloodshot eyes had circles around them and her hair looked like Medusa on a bad day, to top it all off she was wearing a pink t-shirt with "Party Naked" printed across it. The two sisters stared at each other for a long moment before Euphemia broke the silence,

"What," Simple, concise, to the point.

"Euphia..." Cornelia muttered, the response was less then pleasant.

"What. Do you want." Cornelia wasn't quite sure how to handle this kind of attitude so she just plowed forward and met it head on, like always.

"Euphia...what the hell happened last night, what's wrong with you, _where_ are you?" The pinkette stared at her a full thirty seconds before she sighed and relaxed into her chair, now that she was out of the camera's view she realized that the wall behind her was bare bricks covered in beer and heavy metal posters.

"Lemme think...oh right, Carine insisted she go through with her purge of the Saitamo ghetto to get revenge for Clovis, which by the way I hear is a bastardized version of the plan you came up with to draw this Zero character out. " Euphia returned her gaze to her sister with a look of consternation, "nice job giving that psychopath a battle plan by the by, anyway she got played hard, the handful of survivors say they were routed by three seventh generation Knightmares and when they tried to bolt they ran headfirst into a group of black and green Sutherlands that forced them to surrender." Pausing as a brown skinned woman handed her a cup of coffee she muttered "arigato" then resumed her tale.

"After that Carine was defeated by one of the seventh generations, the one that looks like a hybrid design, after that Zero executed her."

"Zero?" Cornelia asked.

"Yeah the guy in the opera suit, Carine must have had someone who spoke Japanese...Elevenese...whatever...on her staff, what the guy called himself in his declaration, its making it rounds right now." Drinking deeply from the steaming cup of life juice she sighed contentedly then continued, "Anyway I was pissed beyond all words at that point, mostly on brandy, everything I know is really hearsay."

Taking a deep, uncalming breath, Cornelia asked "Why where drunk? Why didn't you stop Carine, and once again, _Where. Are. You?" _Snorting in disdane Euphia waved off the ire like it was nothing,

"Because she used the bureaucracy to lock me out of all command decisions and had Calares place all troop movement orders outside of my knowledge, I found out what she had planned when she broadcasted it, at that point I could do nothing, so Letta and I got very, _very_ drunk."

"Who is Letta?" Cornelia asked, once again going into protective sister mode, which seemed to irritate Euphemia more then anything.

"Villetta Nu, Clovis's only surviving knight, bit of a ladder climber but she managed to hold this Area together before Carine screwed it up, she's been helping me take care of all the bureaucratic crap Clovis set up here." Taking another sip of her coffee she continued, "Probably making her my knight of honor, honestly she deserves it after hauling me away from the blast zone last night." There was an audible gasp and the sound of glass breaking, Euphemia sighed holding her head in agony, "Why did you have to break the coffee pot...yes I want you to be my knight of honor I know its a big deal...stop crying...gods..."

"I...I assume you're at her flat right now? " Cornelia hazard a guess.

"Yes yes, was the most secure place to sleep off 5 bottles of Courvoisier Cognac with the palace being blown up, I hadn't answered your calls because I'd been playing administrator on Villetta's piece of shit laptop." She stopped for a second, then stared to her right, "Letta you're now a Baroness, with all rights, privlages and funds, go buy a fucking desktop with more RAM then my wristwatch, _now_." Crash, gasp, slamming door and revving engine in less then 30 seconds, 'impressive response time' Cornelia couldn't help but think.

"All right, I'm glad you're safe and taken care of, what are your next plans?"

At this Euphia paused to contemplate, nodding to herself she replied, "I'll hold the fort till you get here, after that I'm going to scout local schools and worm my way in, I need to relax and I've more then earned my stripes as a leader dealing with Carine's blunders so please don't waste time fencing with me over it."

Cornelia couldn't help it, she was bloody proud of her little sister right then, she had taken control , acknowledged her weaknesses and found people to cover for them and made best of a bad situation... Lady Marianne would be proud as well. Smiling to her litt...no...maturing sister she said,

"A lovely plan, I'm already in transit, I'm leaving the administration of Area 18 to the politicians, I don't rightly care if Father or Schneizal approves, I'll be there soon." Smiling wanly Euphia ended the conversation on a quick note,

"Please hurry."

_**Stadtfeld Industries Factory Floor Three Days Later**_

Kallen Kozuki lived a life of lies, she was fully aware and content with this, she played the part of the docile lover to Lelouch at school so no one asked questions, always a plus, questions usually ended with broken bones around her. She pretended to be a subservient follower to her fiance's new persona Zero, also a plus since no one would ask questions, questions in that department ended up with bodies that had to be disposed of which annoyed the hell out of Nunnally. What she would never pretend to be was a weak leader, so as she plodded through the factory floor of _her_ industrial empire she couldn't help but stare at old man Ruben with fury.

"Why in the jacked up literal fuck are we building war machines for the Britannians Grandfather!?" Her words were as always coarse but respectful to her long term benefactor, her sister in all but name Millicent was tapping away at her tablet looking nothing like the perverted President of the student council she typically played. Ruben grinned making his silly walrus mustache look even more ridiculous then normal,

"My dear Duchess, as always its because we get something out of it, you yourself fed Earl Asplund the combat data from the Lancelot like you had come up with it on your own, these Vincent's he wishes to make from that are far easier to handle then another high-end unit." Pausing to light his pipe he continued, "Britannia has to adapt to what is confronting it, and we're in the perfect position to mold the development to our desires, be honest now, would you rather they make another Lancelot that could stop your Guran in its tracks or would you rather have a gaggle of knockoffs that could stand up to Sutherlands and little else?"

Kallen for her part was quiet for several minutes as they made their way to the elevator, choosing to ignore her father figure she turned to Millicent,

"Milly...your grandfather has a very annoying habit of being right, please write in that this is no longer acceptable." Ruben and Milly both laughed heartily at that and walked out of the elevator as they proceeded to the offices they had handed off to the Camelot division.

"Duly noted Duchess, also on an aside I sincerely suggest you publicly announce your engagement, Shirley is about to attempt and woo him again and its getting very hard to distract her." Sighing she shot back,

"You know it really floors me that neither of the twins have shown any interest in relationships with the student body yet they're practically stalked on a daily basis, its messed up." With that Ruben snorted glancing to his ward,

"Young lady people want what the cannot have and no mere normal human being could ever entice Luluka and Lelouch Vi Britannia, the common folk sense this barrier and want it." Milly giggled then only nodded in agreement, fuming silently they approached the door to Earl Asplund's office she slammed her fist against the fine oak in anger,

"Hey you Earl of Pudding, we're here to negotiate, open up!"

_**Ashford Acadamy Gymnasium**_

Suzaku Kururugi enjoyed his life immensely, he was considering this as he did one handed body lifts with over a dozen women watching him. He was by no means a playboy, but for all intents and purpose he could be, his brother had set up the perfect alibi for him and his obvious Japanese features where considered exotic rather then repulsive with his supposed bi-racial heritage. So he lived it up, new girlfriend every few weeks, sex where he wanted it, no hard feelings from the ladies, and he was generally liked by everyone. All thanks to Lelouch, he didn't even want to consider what his life would have been like if he'd stuck to his old childish ideals.

Jerking up from his lifts he saw Lelouch enter the arena shirtless without the synthflesh cover on his arm, 'Oh brother wants to play' he thought with a devilish grin, readying himself he tossed his towel aside and dove forward. Performing a spinning kick he charged his brother while he attempted to guard himself, 'Getting better' he though pleasantly as Lelouch's synthetic arm jerked up and threw Suzaku across the hall. They batted at each other for forty minutes strait, neither gaining an inch but giving their all the entire time, as the class change bell range they leaned against each other panting in exhilaration.

"One day" Lelouch gasped, "I'll finally beat you, bloody exercise freak." Grinning Suzaku just patted Lelouch on his head,

"Go ahead and think that brother, right now I see...six ladies who would probably murder the Emperor to be with me so I'll talk to you later." With that they separated, Lelouch chuckled as he walked away,

"Womanizer" he threw over his shoulder, Suzaku only laughed in return,

"Oh please you're just jealous because your lady would murder anyone who got in her way to you." Lelouch stopped at that and shuddered,

"Yup" was the only response.

_**Ashford Academy, Lamperogue Wing**_

Luluka's knife flew strait and quivered in the stack of pizza boxes taking up the corner of the common room, she pulled it out and handed it off to her little sister,

"Now remember, hold the blade by its edge, let out your breath and throw it with determination, just like Sayoko-san showed you." With that Nunnally pulled her forearm back and jerked it forward, hitting less then an inch from Luluka's mark.

"Well done Imouto!" she cheered, Nunnally needed all the positive reinforcement she could get and her Nee-Chan was hell bent on giving it to her, grinning again she said

"Now imagine that pizza box was our goat fucking father, throw it again!"

_**Pendragon, Emperor's Personal Offices**_

Glowering at his desk he stared at the diminutive pink haired teenager before him, he always felt like a sick pedophile when he had to address Marianne in her purloined body,

"So...they're all alive and fighting against me." Marianne could only nod before he continued, "You know...its rather sad really, of all my children I think those three could actually understand where we were coming from...that could have been allies, powerful, furious allies." He gritted his teeth as Anya, or rather Marianne laughed,

"Oh yes, my entire family could have been part of Ragnarok, sadly your creepy big brother ruined all that, maybe, _maybe_ they could have eventually forgiven my murder, but forgiving a near decade of constant assassination attempts? They'd be idiots to believe anything we say." Charles for his part kept glaring forward before he shook himself from his rage, turning he addressed his semi-deceased wife,

"So...what do you suggest?" Anya's childish face played a very adult look of bemused anger,

"Oh nothing much, just giving away the Geass Directorate to our loving children and see what they do with the information." Charles for his part just quirked an eyebrow before responding,

"More then likely he'd order an immediate reaction, try to wipe out all those tykebombs at once...but...well his sisters always acted as a counterweight or catalyst...ok we'll have a courier get 'caught' in Area Eleven, I'm as curious as you are to see how this will be handled." Marianne/ Anya smiled maliciously then nodded in ascent.

_**Ashford Academy Student Council Lounge**_

Luluka was having the time of her life, killing idiots trying to kill her family, infiltrating enemy strongholds to save loved half siblings, making friends with mad scientists, it was honestly her idyllic idea on how to spend her life. She walked through the lounge to see Nina typing away at her computer when she stopped cold, unlike her kydoi she had a very good grasp on physics and what she saw was horrifying. Walking up to the small girl she startled her while she put her hand on her shoulder,

"Nina...what the hell do you have here..." The green haired scientist in waiting jumped up in surprise while blushing furiously, 'Right the lesbian thing, must be like a piece of dangling meat in front of a timid kitten right now...ugh' pointing at the monitor she decided not to respond to Nina's reaction.

"Ummm...hey Luluka, its just a stupid idea I had, based on my uncles research it, its likely you could force the uranium isotope U-235 into a nuclear fission reaction via an impact slug of plutonium or a near fusion reaction by the simultaneous detonation of an explosive sphere that hyper compressed the isotope till it imploded on its own. You could exponentially increase the yield if freshly manufactured tritium was 'squirted' into the blast as the reaction occurred." Taking a breath the bespectacled girl continued, "My idea is instead of tritium you inject sakuradite, my projections indicate that the gamma radiation absorption would be 92% more effective then the tritium and the resulting explosion would look more like an implosion device with no residual radiation. Other then the 15 kilometer deep crater, I suppose that would be an indicator, I'd have to ask whatever institute picked up my research funding to find out exactly but I doubt it would be difficult to figure out." With that Luluka numbly picked up her phone and texted her brother,

'Get the fuck over to the student council building, _NOW_.'


	15. Chapter 15

_**As always please review, the story is now officially off the rails from the series and its now my show, I need to know what folks are thinking, do you find the new twists neat, stupid, cliche? Talk to me people! Also in response to a couple PM's for the love of the Old Gods no there will be no incest in this story stop asking for it, whats wrong with you people.**_

* * *

_**Ashford Academy Student Council Center, 2 days after Carine's Fall**_

Luluka was stalking back and forth in front of the Student Council Center doors unknowingly giving off violent vibes, to most she looked like a furious lioness protecting her den while to folks of Nina's persuasion she looked sexy as all get out, neither of these mattered to her. While her brother made his was to her he finally got into range of their 'connection' and she'd given him the down low, to say he was enraged would be an understatement.

'I don't give a damn what kind of advantage it would give us you're asking me to _mind rape_ one of our childhood friends into helping us!' If there was a barometer for anger it would probably would have caught fire at the moment.

'I know why you're upset brother but understand, she's a loyal Britannian if she wishes to continue her research into...whatever the hell Nina considers worthwhile she'll sell this idea off to the military, the only reason her Uncle Albert never finished the cruder version of this design was his own morals and the fact that residual radiation would make colonizing pointless...with these weapons they could wipe a nation out in a day and build upon the ashes within a week..." his response was less then pleasant,

'So I'm supposed to commit a human rights crime against a friend in order to justify what _might_ happen?! And even if she develops these weapons for us instead are we really willing to stoop to our "Father's" level and use them? What good would come from it? Really? We can liberate Japan without WMD's...what the hell is she even calling this thing?' Sighing his sister replied,

"Freyja, or a clever acronym based on the name, I haven't seen the details yet," The laughter was not appreciated.

'Oh that's lovely we've made Nunnally the Norse 'Chooser of the Slain' so why not have the goddess of love and sex burn the world for us, even if I ordered her to develop this horror how long would it take her to finish it?" Luluka sighed and replied,

'Now, its finished, right now she's just playing with projections, if I got this to Miss Chawlas we'd probably have a functioning prototype in two weeks give or take.' Silence was her response, as she waited for his retort Lelouch turned the corner and approached her, still using their connection he stared her down and finally responded,

'Its the Chinese isn't it,' Sighing for what felt like the thousandth time in the past hour she nodded.

'Yes, if we liberate Japan I can almost guarantee the European Union would send a "Humanitarian Aid" task force from Russia or the Chinese Federation would strait out invade, there would undoubtedly be a counter attack from home as well, if we could nuke their invasion fleets or at least set one off near enough to scare them we could become a world power, fuck Rakshata gave us access to a pair of stealth subs we even have a solid delivery system with the ICBM's loaded on-board. Brother I don't like this either but we need to use it.' Lelouch looked ill, and it wasn't from his drinking binge a few days back, he swept his long hair behind his ears in frustration and gave her a determined glare.

"We'll do it" he growled as he pushed past his twin, "If we can live with ourselves after it...hell that's up in the air, tell our family what I did I'm going to need a shower and a jug of moonshine after this." With that Lelouch vi Britannia went and changed history for the entirety of mankind.

_**Stadtfeld Industries Secret Labs, 1 day later**_

Rakshata considered herself a practical woman, its how she had ended up working for Boss Red to begin with, persuaded to abandon her prior contracts she'd met the desperate little girl who wanted to turn her companies entire focus upside down in order to produce the best synthetic limb possible for her crush. Touched by the honest affection she'd accepted and Lelouch acquired an arm kings would murder for, less then a year later the young man revealed who he truly was and his desire to topple the worlds empires and make it a united, gentle place. It had taken her awhile but she eventually gave in and started designing Knightmares for the young rebellion and soon became its lead researcher,

"And this is where it led you..." she mused to herself, F.L.E.I.J.A...or rather Freyja...with the blueprints it would be simple to manufacture, the only thing they'd have to wait on was enriching the uranium and with Kallen's facilities that would take less then two weeks, the same time the automated gantries needed to manufacture the warheads. It was a game breaker, none of the big three knew of its existence and its creator had apparently been silenced, the only people that would know where the semi-revealed Black Knights, it would be the trump card to end all trump cards, the ability to wipe out armies in an instant. Smirking slightly to herself she couldn't quite help mumbling to her self as she hit the "Manufacture" button,

"And now for the Earth shattering kaboom."

_**Prefab Trailer Outside of Viceroy Palace Crater**_

Euphemia felt better, more relaxed, more controlled then she had in ages, all the pomp and circumstance involved with her station had ended with several high yield explosives and now her sister was finally letting her off her admittedly long leash. Scrolling through local academies she delved into their forums and photo dumps attempting to get a read on the student body, for the most part she was very unimpressed, apparently she was scowling without realizing it when her Knight spoke up,

"Not liking what you're seeing Euphia?" Villetta asked, sighing she glanced up,

"No not really, most of these schools are just like the ones back home, boring, segregated, 'If you aren't white you aren't Britannian', that sort of thing, just..."

"Plain vanilla" the Knight responded nodding her head in understanding, smiling Euphemia nodded back,

"Yes, its truly irritating, I'll parrot my sister a bit when I say my father's policies really inhibit creativity...hmm...this looks interesting." Ignoring Letta for the moment Euphia started scrolling through the Ashford Academy database.

'Huh, dedicated to breaking the barriers of nobles and commoners to create a bright future for both...sweet I like them already.' Scrolling through the Academies database she saw countless photos of teens from multiple nationalities having fun, or running in terror from a particular blonde,

'Must be an interesting story for that' she mused, when she cycled through another of the festival photos she froze and gasped,

"No bloody way..." Eyes practically throbbing out of her skull she cycled back and stared at the photo, it was a group shot as five people walked down an elegant staircase, in the background an Eleven boy wearing a tux and a Britannian redheaded woman in a formal gown where laughing making motions with their hands that Euphemia recognized as Knightmare signs, silent motions made in mid combat. Between them a honey brown haired girl slightly younger then them was hopping up and down clapping excitedly, and in front of them wearing a violet tux and a luxurious ebony gown where a pair of twins, their arms entwined glancing at each other with their amethyst eyes exuding a look that screamed 'Mischief is afoot.'

"Le...Lelouch? Luluka? Nunnally!?" Not being able to contain her shock she fell over and Villetta rushed to her side trying to right her, 'They're alive and they made no effort to contact us...what...oh gods was the transmission Nelly found true?!' Allowing her knight to right her she stared back at the monitor then whispered,

"I need a limo...NOW!"

_**Ashford Acadamy, Main Gardens One hour Later**_

Gasping for breath the pair of athletic twins hid behind a hedge glancing back and forth in terror, the pairs clothes where ruffled and their hair disheveled, both motioning for weapons they did not currently have on their persons.

"Gonna murder her, slowly, with a vegetable peeler," the female of the pair gasped, her brother darted a quick look at her then replied,

"Only so long as you catch her first, otherwise she's mine." As he said this they heard their student council presidents voice bellow over the loud speakers,

"The enticing twins of lust have been spotted in the gardens, remember if you want a date with one of them you have to catch both, go forth my minions!" With a cry of anguish the pair sprinted forward once again,

"So much murder is going to happen to that bitch," Luluka growled out as they shimmied past a bloody horse of all things and ran up the bell tower steps.

"Murder is too good for that succubus, I say I geass her to stop wearing pants for a week," Lelouch replied, they made it to the top of the tower and hid in the shadows of the bell.

"I swear to the old gods I have no idea what gets in that woman's head sometimes" Luluka huffed, they watched in mystified horror as the entire school was tearing apart the gardens looking for them, some going so far as to pull up the hedges.

"This...is bloody ridiculous...are people really this obsessed over us?" Before she could respond they heard the door to the tower open and several female voices talking excitedly about seeing the pair rush in here.

"I'm considering first degree murder at the moment...starting with them...er...goddammit I have no knives on me..." Luluka growled in frustration.

"I can choke them to death," Lelouch offered helpfully, Luluka was obviously mulling the pros and cons of this course of action when they saw the first girl round the corner, grabbing her brother she dove out the window and hid behind a support beam.

"Millicent will pay for this, it will be humiliating and satisfying..." she grumbled to herself.

_**Outside the Gates of Ashford **_**_Academy_**

Euphemia was perplexed, it seemed the entire school body was attempting to shred the main gardens while a bellowing voice screamed for them to find her prey, without even realizing it she pulled out her personal side arm and made sure she had a round chambered, re-securing the pistol she walked through the open gate with an equally stunned Villetta.

"I...umm...Your Hig...Euphia...the hell?" Was the only response her knight could give, thankfully for her Euphia was in the exact same mindset.

"I sincerely have no idea, err... is this normal? I mean...damn this is just insane," while they were commenting on the chaos before them a pair of figures slide down the drainpipe of the bell tower and ran towards her at full speed, the figures were near identical except one was male and the other female, stopping before the Princess they seemed to register who she was a second too late.

"FUCK!" the female yelled, her partner stared Euphemia in the eyes,

"Well...bollocks...that figures..." he said in a resigned tone, her eyes widening she was about to scream her long lost siblings names when she heard the battle charge of all the other students. As if synchronized the twins turned around to assess the situation, spun back to Euphia with wide eyes, grabbed her by the shoulders and dove into the open limo.

"Gogogogogogoggogo!" Luluka screamed as Villetta jumped in after them, the poor limo driver not knowing what in the bloody hell was going on hit the gas and sped away from the Academy. The twins where breathing heavily and flushed with a sense of victory, it wasn't until Euphia let out a small,

"Ahem" that Lelouch realized he was straddling her, gasping he jumped back and fell on the floor, two pairs of figures stared at each other in silence for a moment before Luluka quipped,

"If Kallen finds out you've been trying to mount other women I do believe your dick is going the route of Rasputin."

_**Limo Circling Tokyo Settlement, 20 minutes later**_

"So" Euphemia said sadly, "You are in fact terrorists." With that statement the twins faces screwed up in disgust, Lelouch being the first to speak,

"Hell no we aren't terrorist's, I've spent the past _seven _years headhunting every cell I encountered, we stole the best and brightest and left the violent idiots on their own to draw Clovis's attention, and it worked splendidly." Picking up on her brothers tirade Luluka threw in,

"We didn't even want a direct confrontation for another 3 years, our plans were no where near ready but when we found out about Clovis making chemical weapons-" Lelouch continued that thought,

"We had to do something, but then we found out the chemical weapon was a cover for live human experimentation." Gasping Euphemia stared at her brother,

"Clovis...Clovis did that?" Snorting Luluka waved dismissively,

"Worse then that when we asked him how he could justify killing so many innocents his response was "They're only Elevens", at that point we knew he was hopeless." Both Villetta and Euphemia looked stunned at this, no justification, he simply didn't view them as humans, that was...not good.

"Anyway" Luluka said smiling, "We've never actively attacked anyone, we're reactionary at best at the moment, honestly we're just too wary of the OSI attempting to assassinate us for the tenth-" Lelouch interrupted her,

"Twelfth" he said, nodding she continued

"The twelfth time, good old dad's been trying to cap us for seven years, we're not about to let that sit." Eyes widening in shock Euphemia stuttered,

"Fa...father has been trying to kill you? How can you be sure?" Lelouch chuckled and looked at her with a lopsided grin,

"Simple, we still have the written orders we pulled off the assassins corpses, sloppy work that but we got the hint, in order to justify slaughtering this nations people dear old dad needed us to die, we're an inconvenient reminder that Britannia had no right to invade Japan, he needed martyrs not heirs." Once again stunned into silence Euphemia just stared out the window, as the limo stopped, the twins opened the door and started stepping out, Luluka turned to her sister handing her a piece of paper,

"Don't tell Nelly we're alive, here's our numbers we'll arrange a meet an' greet later, please keep this quiet we'll discuss this whole rebellion thing in length later, if you betray us we'll disappear and have to kill you, no offense meant its just business." Eyes widening in shock Euphemia accepted the slip of paper wondering what in the hell her siblings had gone through to make them so hardened. She simply nodded and the limo drove away, the compartment was filled with silence until Villetta cleared her throat,

"Well...your long lost family is terrifying, is it too late to back out of this knight thing?" Chuckling sadly Euphemia swatted at her half heartily and leaned against the door,

'Girl what in the hell did you just get yourself involved in?' She had no answer as the limo took them home.


	16. Chapter 16

**Friend pointed out how I could have a bit of fun with the whole twin/incest thing I keep getting badgered with, as they say be careful what you wish for, also I felt that a couple segments explaining the Black Knights winning streak were in order, Lelouch and company are crazy prepared. I'm thinking this is the last branching chapter for awhile and its time to move onto the next big event, it may be a few days as I mull over how to implement it, until then enjoy the story and as always please review!**

**Edit-in response to the guest review saying some people are acting a bit out of character I'm gonna be honest, that's for the most part intended, if you have a specific character in mind that is a bit over the top let me know. If its Cornelia I fully intended for her to be more light hearted, she isn't harboring a deep seething decade long hatred for numbers because hey, she knows they didn't kill her siblings. Suzaku didn't kill his dad and didn't spend a decade hating himself, and the Lamperouge's are all suffering from PTSD in one form or another, so yes everyone is a bit changed because the world around them changed, I thought for the most part I kept their core character intact but if I failed I apologize, specifics help me become a better writer though.**

_**Saitama Ghetto Massacre Aftermath April 30, 2017 A.T.B.**_

"Why are G1's purple?" The princess asked her knight, the bespectacled man started, looking at his lady in confusion,

"Pardon your highness?" The royal in question removed her field glasses after getting her fill observing the wreck of Carine's command center sighing,

"I mean honestly, urban, jungle, desert, forest, the blasted thing is hundreds of square meters of bright purple steel, there's nothing even vaguely stealthy about them, and Sutherland's, they're royal blue, in your face, no attempt to hide. What do the rebels paint their units? Dark green and coyote brown, camouflage colors, you know why? They're not arrogant enough to think that their damn reputation is all that was needed to keep them alive, that's our disadvantage...arrogance."

"As...as you say your highness," Sir Gilbert Guilford replied, not daring to say anything else. Growling in frustration Cornelia put the field glasses back up to her eyes once again observing the theater of Carine's fall, the rotting ghetto peppered with the burned out wrecks of hundreds of Britannian war machines. This humiliation was thankfully not being attributed to herself or Euphemia, but she was stuck with the annoying after action cleanup, scanning the area she couldn't help but feel mildly impressed with her favorite sister though.

"Euphia didn't waste any time ordering all salvageable material recovered, its a mess but at least we're not supplying the rebels with any more resources," Guilford nodded in agreement,

"Indeed, almost all Yggdrasil drives have been recovered as well as most of the Knightmare's weapons, its a minor victory but we must take what we can get." Nodding Cornelia kept scanning the broken buildings until she saw something that caused her to stop short, not being able to help herself a low chuckle worked its way from her throat.

"Guilford...did it not seem odd to you that even accounting for their using seventh generation units the terrorists were able to so casually tear apart a trained army numbering in the hundreds without support? In both Shinjuku and Saitama?" Guilford nodded stiffly glaring at the horizon,

"Yes, they're obviously skilled pilots but there is only so far skill can take you, it was too incredibly thorough, why do you ask my princess?" Still laughing Cornelia handed her field glasses to her knight and replied,

"Look at that building, 30 meters up, on the west corner, follow the snapped cord blowing in the wind, what do you see?" Looking to Cornelia in confusion the knight took the glasses and stared at the building in question, after a moment his jaw dropped and he muttered,

"Son of a bitch." Laugh turning to a full on cackle Cornelia took the glasses back and started scanning the rest of the ghetto,

"Indeed, fact-spheres and cameras strung up throughout the neighborhood, the rebels knew where every one of our units was at anytime, complete omniscience...I admit it Guily they played our side like a bloody drum. This Zero knew that Shinjuku may have turned out violent so he had a similar network set up there and Carine giving him a heads up on the Saitama purge he was able to get this one running...we're dealing with one smooth operator."

Chuckling himself he turned to Cornelia shaking his head, "Princess I think its even worse then that, if the info Euphemia has been able to gather is correct Zero has been covertly subverting all other major terrorist cells for years, taking the best and brightest and setting them up as part of his organization leaving the chaff to die. What if he didn't set these observation networks up on the fly? What if the entirety of the Tokyo settlement and surrounding Ghetto's have these spy nets set up? You'd only notice if you where looking for them," Cornelia interrupted him,

"And if we start taking them down the local cells could stash the rest of the equipment until we move on...clever bastard...Guilford I think we finally found someone worth the effort of killing," He simply returned her smile and nodded in agreement.

_**Ashford Acadamy, Disturbing Revelations**_

"Seriously Milly, your death will be slow, painful and you'll deserve every second of it," an irate Luluka stated over her lunch tray, the blonde in question just waved the threat off as if it was nothing.

"Now now now, no need to get uppity, its not my fault the student body is obsessed with you and Lelouch's harem," With that her brother choked on his mashed potatoes requiring Suzaku to slap him on the back until he coughed them up.

"Ha...Harem? The hell are you talking about Milly?" She flashed him a mischievous grin while bridging her fingers under her chin doing her best to emulate an action flick villain,

"Its quite simple, the campus has noticed that you're constantly surrounded by beautiful women, myself, Shirley, Kallen, Luluka, Nunnally, Nina and now that mysterious green haired girl, people start talking my friend, and I listen." Flushing thirty different shades of crimson Luluka stuttered,

"Th..t...th..the fuck?! We're siblings! Twins! Why the fuck would anyone think that? Suzaku's around us all the time why doesn't anyone think somethings going on with him?!" The boy in question shrugged nonchalantly,

"Eh, I have the reputation of a man whore, no rumors necessary." Milly simply nodded in agreement as the twins cycled through several faces of rage and confusion.

"Truth be told there are entire threads hosting fanfic's dedicated to your debauchery ladened incestuous love on the school forums, some of them are quite romantic." Lelouch's brain clicked into clinical apathy for a moment as he asked,

"The hell is a fanfic," while his sister replied,

"And why the fuck are people talking about us on the forums?" Her shit eating grin getting even wider Milly tapped a few commands into her tablet and handed it to Lelouch,

"That's the number one story starring you two right now, enjoy." Taking the tablet Lelouch raised an appraising eyebrow,

"'Two Halves Made Whole-A story of forbidden love and lost innocence'...," Luluka scooted next to him and they started reading together, this ironically kick started one of the things that caused the students of Ashford to be obsessed with the twins. Typically they behaved like normal individual human beings, but when they were both surprised by something in the vicinity of each their actions mirrored, it was as if they where operating off of one mind and it was quite a sight to see.

As they read the story a gamete of expressions ran across their faces, starting with quirked eyebrows, followed quickly by shocked revulsion as their violet eyes widened in horror. This was followed with blank stares lasting roughly two minutes as they kept reading, their eyes now closed into slits as their heads tilted to the left as if to change what they were seeing, after another minute they both sat up eyeing each other from the corner of their vision. The entire time this was happening Milly was grinning and Suzaku was watching his siblings with a bemused smirk well aware the President was recording this somehow. After a few more moments of cycling looks of horror they placed the tablet back on the table and both siblings stared down at their lunches muttering,

"Well then..." a short pause later then Luluka asked,

"Dear brother?"

"Yes Sister?"

"The fact of the matter is you are the most dashingly handsome man I've ever met," he nodded and responded with,

"And you are the most radiantly beautiful woman I know."

"That being said"

"The only reason I feel that way,"

"Is you look like me,"

"And I'm damn sexy,"

"So if its all the same I'd prefer it if you kept your 'throbbing member' far away from my person,"

"And you'll understand if I refrain from 'burying myself in your heaving bosom'"

"I'm glad that we clarified these boundaries,"

"Indeed," and with that they went back to their lunches, Milly started pouting tapping the table in annoyance,

"Well damn they got over that quickly," with that she stood up and left in a huff, more then likely to recover her hidden camera, Suzaku broke out laughing slapping Lelouch on the back.

"Well played you two, well played," the twins grinned back and shrugged,

"Only way to handle Milly," Luluka said around a mouthful of chicken,

"Is to not give her what she wants, deny the mouse the damn cookie..it's the only way you'll survive," Lelouch finished.

_**Tokyo Settlement Business District**_

One of Jet's duties as Minami's second in command was to sift through the ridiculous amount of tipoffs the populace sent the Black Knights way, the issue with these helpful little parcels of information was 95% of them were either false leads, planted info or more often then not neighbors narking on each other for petty revenge. Sighing as he threw another useless stack into the shredder he took a swig of stale of coffee and got back to it,

"Ugh, 'My neighbor may be refrain dealer, just last week he stole one of my dustbins, its obvious that only a morally bankrup...' Yeah moving on, lessee 'Sir I am a Duke from Area 17 who is in dire need of aid, I have over 50,000,000 pounds sterling that I need to wire out of my estate due to dissidents, please send me your bank account inf...' damn man can never escape that one." Scratching his head in frustration he quickly skimmed the first line of all the reports until he ran into a legal document with a post-it note, quickly reading it his eyebrows shot up expectantly,

"Well hello there mister leaked diplomatic cable, 'Agent transferring high level documentation between Area Eleven and...The Chinese Federation...," grabbing the phone he contacted one of Lelouch's wet works squads giving them the agents itinerary then forwarded the information to Minami and the big boss man himself.

"Secret Ageeent maaaan, you just fell out of the paaaan," he singsonged lazily as he threw his legs up on the desk, 'One more point for the little guys' he thought happily to himself.

_**Tokyo Settlement, Undisclosed Safe House Six Hours Later**_

There were very few things that actually caused both Lelouch and Kallen to lose their cool at the same time, different temperaments, different triggers, but what they agreed on is getting woken up at two in the morning to interrogate some government weasel when they had class the next day was grounds for violence. Stepping into the safe house Kallen banged on the door, a slit opened up top and a voice said,

"Flash," Kallen responded with,

"Open the fucking door before I fry this house with a low power radiation wave giving you idiots cancer." There was silence for a moment then the door swung open with a terrified Britannian youth waving his hands in front of his face,

"Whoa whoa ma'am I'm just following protocol, follow the corridor Minami will meet you at the isolation cell, targets stone cold hasn't said a word and his document case is rigged to explode if we input the wrong code." Pushing past the dark skinned teen Kallen stalked forward, Lelouch stopped and put a hand on the youths shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze,

"Don't worry about her man she is willing to start The Great War II over a couple hours of missed sleep, you did well," nodding with a smile Jet closed up the door and lifted his shotgun going back on watch duty. Following his fuming fiance Lelouch saw his older violet haired subordinate leafing through a stack of documents, most of it was gibberish code but what caught both their attention was the header, it was the flapping crane sigil of Geass.

"Oh that isn't good he muttered," Minami looked up in confusion seeing where the couple was staring, his face darkened some as he asked

"That familiar boss?" Kallen shuddered and turned to their longtime associate,

"Remember how we told you Clovis was experimenting on that girl to find the pathway to immortality and unnatural powers?" He nodded starting to look nervous, Kallen sighed then flashed her Geass for him, the man stumbled back in shock." Yeeeeeah, he was closer then anyone would have liked, thankfully he was incompetent as hell, but if there is an organization using this sigil as their logo..." Minami paled,

"Oh...oh shit...guys...ummm...we need to talk about this later with the others but damn...what did Jet get us involved in?" Scowling Lelouch motioned for him to open the door,

"I have no idea, lets ask our guest, make sure you're recording this...oh and while you're watching this try not to freak out I'll explain it all when I'm done." Stepping into the plain concrete room the man in question looked up from his bound position on the floor, once he recognized Lelouch's features he tensed up and hissed,

"Vi Britannia...ironic so you're the one leading these rebels...my master would dearly love to know this," Laughing Lelouch squatted in front of the agent,

"Dear old dad would love to know a great many things, sadly he'll have to wait, now I have a few que-" Lelouch was interrupted by the mans cackling,

"I do not serve the Emperor I serve his right hand, and you'll get nothing from me half blood, torture as you will!" Lelouch's easy smile fell as he glared down at the man,

"Insulting my heritage means you're insulting my mother...well time to let you know how proper fucked you are jimbo," with that Lelouch's Geass flared, the man realized what was happening for one horror struck moment,

"NO THE WITCH GAVE YO-"

"OBEY ME!" The mans face tensed for a moment then relaxed, with red rings pulsing around his eyes he deadpanned,

"Yes your highness." Smiling Lelouch patted him on the head,

"Now, who is your boss?"

"The Emperor's immortal twin brother V.V." Lelouch really hoped that he didn't squawk like a choked bird like he through he had, filing this away for later he continued,

"And what is your organizations goals?"

"The Geass Directorate is a black operation to weaponize Geass and use it to capture, contain, and eliminate none Britannian Code holders and Geass users as well as actively assassinate and infiltrate enemies of the crown." Gritting his teeth Lelouch decided to ask a personal question,

"Have any of these units been sent after me?"

"Yes, twice the group that was sent to the Kururugi Estate contained three Geass users, they were killed by a Knightmare though so it was wasted resources, and last year the agent Rolo was sent after a potential sighting of your sisters at the Narita hot springs but a woman dressed like a ninja slit his throat when he was not paying attention." 'Arigato Saoko-San' he thought grimly,

"Why where you traveling through Area Eleven?"

"Initially I thought it was to transfer the blue prints for the Geass Inhibitor prototype, but I'm now thinking someone used me as a pawn to put you on the Directorates trail, it is unlikely they realized you had a Geass power to force my cooperation though, or they would not have sent such a dangerous document with me."

"Makes sense, speaking of which what is the code to open your courier case?"

"J4K3W8N8S4L2C5R9, there is also a secret panel within the case that contains the coordinates for the Directorates current headquarters, its passcode is RA4B6DD84C"

"Yeesh" Lelouch muttered, ok rather extensive security, looking back down he asked the man,

"Do you have any other useful information?"

"Other then that my master V.V. despises you for being Lady Marieanne's son, no." Nodding Lelouch stood and left the room. Minami was staring at him in shock stuttering,

"Wha...what the hell did you do to him?" Lelouch scratched his head and sighed,

"Absolute Authority, no one can resist a command I give them, trade off it only works once, honestly I really hate using it feels really...violating.." Glancing up at the shocked man he cast his Geass, "Who is your most loyal subordinate?" Minami's face slackened as he said

"Jet," after that his eyes cleared and as fury started to appear on it Lelouch cast his Geass again,

"Now repeat yourself," standing to his full height the man bellowed

"HELL NO!" Laughing Lelouch said,

"See? Only works once, and now you're immune," That seemed to cause the bigger man to deflate a bit, quickly glancing to Kallen she just nodded her assent and said,

"Just to let it be known we only got these powers after Shinjuku, you've all been following on your own free will," Nodding and seemingly settled for the time being Minami replayed the video and inputted the codes, there was an OSD and a slip of paper with coordinates on it, handing them over to Lelouch he asked,

"What do we do with the prisoner?" Mulling this over Lelouch went to the desk and took out an extra disk tossing it into the case and sealing it.

"I'll order this bastard to go to his rendezvous point and 'Accidentally' input the wrong code, there is a enough C4 in there to kill him for sure, if his superiors get curious it will look like he got careless, little more."

"Smart, ok boss give him his orders and I'll make arrangements for his transportation and if I may make a suggestion? We should really tell the others about this magic crap as soon as possible." Nodding in understanding Lelouch entered the room to condemn a man to his death.

* * *

**There are not enough hours in the day for me to write as much as I'd like, maybe I should take a couple vacation days to get the muse out of my system, eh, we'll see, until next time folks! Look forward to the Kawaguchi Lake convention centre event and how different it will be since so much of the JLF has been absorbed by the Black Knights over the years, can't wait to write it!**


	17. Chapter 17

**_If you ever find yourself in a fair fight you aren't cheating hard enough, honor is what the other guy wants and he can enjoy it in hell, worry about your honor when our country is free and you outlived the other bastard by a half dozen decades-Suzaku Kururugi's opening speech to new Black Knight recruits_**

* * *

**_En route_**_** to Kawaguchi Lake Convention centre May 10th 2017 A.T.B.**_

As the bullet train approached the Kawaguchi Lake convention centre Euphemia couldn't help but feel herself relaxing, 'finally' she thought with a stretch, 'No more terrorists, no more terrifying long lost siblings, no more responsibility and heck, no more drinking, just hot tubs and massages'. She grinned openly, sure she had to put up with a bunch of old bastards talking about how great they were but it was a small trade off as far as she was concerned, lolling her head to the side she saw a group of students reassuring a small mousy girl who looked nervous enough to have a fit. The blonde of the group looked vaguely familiar but the others where new faces, the mousy girl noticed her looking at them and broke out into a blush and seemed to fall back into herself more, 'Why would she be...ohhhh...well that's flattering I suppose'.

As she centered her vision back on the bulkhead above her she heard the door open, glancing over she saw an absolutely gorgous woman walk toward the group, her white blouse classily clashing with her long raven hair and her tasteful skirt showing off long alabaster legs, 'Whoa' Euphia thought as the gaggle of girls greeted her.

"Luluka glad you could make it!" The orange haired girl said hopping up, "We're just trying to reassure Nina the trip will be safe, its her first time out of the settlement in years." Euphia watched in shock as the woman in question snorted and sat next to the group,

"Yeah I sincerely doubt the terrorists will start anything, well none of the ones I'm aware of anyway," she replied cryptically. 'Oh thank god,' Euphia thought, 'She's not here to cause trouble,' as she thought this her half sister put a cigarette in her mouth absent mindedly rolling it between her lips much to the consternation of the train car of men watching her. Euphia couldn't tell if the woman was aware or not of the suggestiveness of her actions but before she could light it the same orangette grabbed the cylinder of tobacco crushing it, the black haired beauty made a whimpering noise in return.

"I already told you and Lou both Lulu no more smoking! Bad enough I find you two drinking in study hall!" Looking thoroughly dejected Luluka dropped her head sighing,

"Yeah yeah yeah, but in my defense what the hell else am I supposed to do in study hall?" the group stared at her a moment when the small girl, Nina replied, "Umm...study?," Luluka broke out in scathing giggles, "Oh right right, studying...hehe..." the confused group decided to ignore this and changed the subject, still smiling her sister put on a pair of eye glasses and seemed to space out her hands occasionally twitching. 'Hapatic glasses, damn those are pricey, what is she doing with them?,' tuning her auditory implants to the max and focusing on the distracted woman she heard her muttering almost inaudibly,

"Sell three thousand shares at five hundred sixty pounds a piece...buy all recently available shares of Sumeragi Sakuradite Refineries, confirm price at seven hundred pounds a share...sell all shares of General Motors at two hundred pounds a piece..., P3 to D4, check brother...oh you bastard K1 to C3, Yes Ohgi? Redistribute the loot from the last raid amongst the men, make sure its split evenly with our casualties families...buy three thousand shares of Tokyo Military Salvage Inc for three hundred pounds a piece..." Euphemia stared in shock as the vacant eyed woman was managing her stock portfolio while playing chess and managing a rebellion.

'I have the strangest feeling that if those three had stayed in the Empire they would have taken it over already,' choosing to ignore what she had just heard she settled back into her seat adjusting her volume back to normal, silently hoping this weekend stayed uncomplicated she closed her eyes and tried to catch a nap.

_**Stadfeldt Industries at the same moment**_

Kallen was listening to the long string of mandarin coming from her handset as she was typing frantically on her computer, gritting her teeth in frustration she interrupted the speaker,

"Look I understand that labor laws there are different but I ordered over three hundred tons of raw bauxite six months ago and I've only recei...yes I understand...LISTEN!" rubbing her face in frustration she continued. "If you don't give me what I paid for I'll cancel all shipments of Sakuradite for the next month...yes I'm a primary shareholder I do in fact have that kind of pull...glad we could work this out hear from you soon." Slamming the receiver onto its base she did her best to ignore the chuckling man sitting across from her, glancing up she let out a disgruntled growl.

"Something funny Suzu?" The boy in question was twirling one of the cigars he had pillfered from her desk, smiling he shook his head glancing down at the phone,

"I just find it funny that every time you get into these little 'negotiations' these people think they can push you around, and then you make life infinitely more difficult for them out of spite." She eyed him for a minute before melting into her plush leather chair rubbing her eyes, absently spinning it around its base,

"Tell me about it, they think 'Oh seventeen year old girl she can't possibly know what shes doing we're men we can take advantage of her hahaha...' Oi...anyway sorry you had to sit through that crap what did you need? I know you didn't come out here to watch me negotiate resource trade." With that he looked very uncomfortable, sighing he stared down at the cigar, shoulders sagging and seeming to come to a decision he asked,

"When did you figure out you loved Lelouch?" Looking slightly perplexed she leaned back pondering the question for a moment, nodding to herself she looked back at her future brother in law.

"Remember the Christmas ball when we were 14?" Laughing he replied,

"How could I possibly forget, Milly had stolen Ruben's best vodka and spiked the punch, half the school was sloshed within an hour," chuckling with him she continued her story.

"Right, anyway you remember Lelouch back then, he tried playing the aloof semi-mysterious underachiever, wasn't particularly good at anything but chess, use to drive all three of them nuts having to pretend to be well...normal." Suzuka simply nodded motioning for her to continue, "Anyway he'd gotten about three cups into the punch when it kicked in, his implants had never dealt with alcohol before and it stayed in his system for awhile, then the band started playing a waltz, to this day neither of us know what got into him he just walked up to me, grabbed me by the waist and pulled me to the dance floor."

"I remember that, every girl in the room looked like they were going to kill you, then when they saw Lelouch dance..." She grinned remembering the moment fondly.

"Yeah...well see the thing is his attraction to me wasn't really hidden at that point, but the booze made him forget something, that he was supposed to be mediocre at everything, so we performed a perfect imperial waltz, then the band played Por una Cabeza...and well...tango happened." She blushed a bit at this but still had the dreamy look in her eyes, she'd stopped speaking and Suzaku started shifting uncomfortably in the silence, shaking herself out of her reverey she continued.

"Anyway yeah, after that night I knew I loved him because for the first time since the war ended I got to experience the real Lelouch, and well...the rest is history...so...why do you ask did you want to admit your long standing love to him?" She asked with a coy smile causing the man to stutter, letting out a cackle that would make Milly proud she waved it off but the question still stood.

"I...part of my contract with C.C. is I have to confess how I feel to the woman I love, and well...I have zero experience with that, I've been wearing this wannabe playboy mask for so long that I don't really know who I am underneath it..." Nodding in understanding she stood up to leave her office,

"My advice? Talk to Lelouch, I know he'll approve of your choice and to put it bluntly he can be a little Casanova when he wants to be, just.. remember that everything will change, and for better or worse you'll have to live with the results." Opening the door she waved him on, "I gotta walk past those two soldiers they put in front of Lloyd's lab and they'd think twice about catcalling with you there."

"God it must suck having to pretend you couldn't kill them with your bare hands," he consoled while rolling his eyes, she simply grunted in agreement as they headed home.

_**Vid Conference To Stadtfeld Secret Labs**_

"So what do you have for me Rakshata?" Lelouch asked from the Black Knight base, the Indian woman took a drag from her cigarette before responding.

"My dear boy the data you and your sister keep bringing could keep me busy for years, but no worries I know my focus, I've got these on order from home, they'll be finished in two months," hitting a key she transferred the file in question and waited for Lelouch to examine it, his eyes widening he openly gaped at what he saw.

"You..You can have 27 of these things built in two months? How? Even when Schneizal built his toy it took over a year!" Grinning wide Rakshata made a tut tut noise as if chiding a child,

"Dear boy we're Indians, we plan ahead for these things, I had the hulls manufactured two years ago when I first caught wind of the project, with this data and my own research I've developed both functioning weapons and lift systems for them, all we have to do is wait for them to be tested and installed." Taking another drag she smirked, "Congratulations prince, you're the first man in human history to be in command of his own air armada."

"I... wow... these weapon systems are insane, VARIS turrets? Hadron Cannons? The hell is that? Blaze Luminous shielding with Radiation Wave back up redundancies? Gefjun Disturber missiles? Sheesh you _have_ been busy." She perked up at the mention of the last armament quickly letting out a puff of smoke,

"Oh yes I forgot to mention, I finally got the Gefjun's down to size, I have to admit when you have a mega corporation financing everything with a blank check you can get alot done, with this my dear boy you now have stealth missiles."

Looking at her in confusion he motioned her to finish her statement, "Long made short, the conventional payloads those missile subs where supposed to carry where nearly three times heavier then these F.L.E.I.J.A warheads, so with the extra space I jammed in a Gefjun jammer with a timer to deactivate right before detonation, no sensors can lock on to them, if people want them shot down they'll have to use guns and eyeball it."

Unconsciously giving the creepy grin he leaned towards the camera, "Are you telling me that in less then two months I'll have the worlds only air fleet and enough super weapons to glass a continent at my command?" Smiling in return she waved her pointer finger back and forth,

"Not just that, it winds up Lloyd perfected a miniaturized version of the lift system for Knightmares, its a power hog but give me a month and I can have it tweaked into something efficient, the man is absolutely brilliant no doubt but he has the attention span of a cat on speed so I'm not surprised he put this project on the back burner." Not being able to contain his laughter he managed to gasp out,

"You..hehehe...you're getting another raise...HAHAHA!"

_**Kawaguchi Lake convention centre hotel**_

Sighing in bliss Euphemia slipped deeper into the hot tubs bubbling loveliness, "Oh yeeees, this that massage and a bottle of bubbly and I'll be sooooo set," As she said this the door to the room opened and another woman entered, she heard a gasp and a muttered obscenity, after a moment there was an exasperated sigh and the woman slid into the water.

"Sooo...you never called," Euphia's eyes shot open as she saw Luluak sprawled out identically to her, eyebrows raised inquisitively."

"Err...well...to be honest...come on Luluka you threatened to kill me!" With that Luluka looked surprised then broke out laughing, after a moment she settled down and replied,

"Oh yeah, forgot about that, look it was only a threat you haven't said shit for nearly a week so I can trust you, besides would I really kill you after I went through the effort to save you and your knight?" With that little revelation Euphia couldn't help but wonder what in the world she was talking about, registering her look of confusion her half sister said,

"Right afterwords you threw up on my feet," Blushing deeply Euphia drudged up half remembered memories of a dark skinned blonde dragging her out of the officers club right before the missiles blew up the Viceroy palace.

"Wait, you didn't, wait how did, what?!" Giggling at Euphia's consternation Luluka decided to be easy on her and come clean,

"Dear, spray tan, blonde wig, green contacts, voice modulator, thank god for those high collars, hon I'm a _very_ good infiltrator, trained by a ninja maid in fact, when I saw you blitzed in that club I knew you wouldn't get out of there before the strike so I had to break my cover and move you myself." Sighing with satisfaction she then submerged herself in the bubbling water, Euphemia had to wait nearly a minute before the woman resurfaced to continue the conversation.

"Well...I wish you hadn't found it necessary to blow up my mansion but I'm glad you cared enough about me to see me to safety," Luluka just rolled her eyes at this as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

"Euphia...and when did it stop being Euphie by the way? Euphia, you're our favorite half sister followed by Cornelia, of _course_ I saved you, plus I didn't blow your house up that was Lelouch's fiance's idea, apparently she got giddy at the idea of not being invited to more balls." Rubbing her temples and collecting her thoughts the pinkette formulated her response,

"Around the time I found out my own government tried to murder the only family I cared about, and thank you I'm glad the years haven't diminished your love for me, and finally," Opening her eyes and flashing an evil grin, "Lelouch's fiance? Do tell?" Returning the wicked grin Luluko replied,

"Ok so when we were kids Lelouch popped a cap in this soldier boy when he was..."

_**Black Knight Base**_

Lelouch let out a series of rapid fire sneezes and had to cover his face with a hankercheif until it subsided, shaking his head in confusion he muttered, "The hell was that about?"

_**Kawaguchi Lake convention centre hotel**_

Euphemia followed her sister back down to the convention hall chattering about nothing in particular, it was just good to have her old friend back, as they were busy gossiping Luluka's face fell and she tore her cell phone out of her purse. Looking around in confusion she realized several Eleven men in olive drab uniforms were rushing into the building holding rifles, she heard a growled "Motherfuckers" from her sister as she jabbed send as the men approached.

"Do what they say, for now, when the calvary arrives you stay behind me...and try not to judge me for what I may have to do."

_**Black Knight Base Common Room**_

"Two pair" Nunnally cackled evily as Jeramiah sighed and threw his cards down, Tamaki, Suzaku, and Inoue echoed him but Kallen just grinned and replied,

"Four of a kind little one." Letting out a series of curses that would make Luluka smile in pride Nunnally tossed her cards down, grumbling as she started to shuffle the deck she saw Sayoko rush in and bow to the group."

"I'm sorry to interrupt but, please turn the television on," Looking concerned Jerry picked up the remote and turned to the news, what they saw shocked them."

"Thats right Monica the Japanese Liberation Front has taken the Kawaguchi Lake convention centre and are holding several dozen people hostage including several prominent representatives who where here for the Sakuradite Trade Conference and many Britannian students-" Nunnally quit listening after that, as the camera panned over the hostages she saw Luluka, Shirley, Nina, Milly and...EPHEMIA(!?) amongst the hostages, there was a collective gasp as the door slammed open. Lelouch stood in the threshold with murder in his eyes hands clenched tight enough that she could hear the fingers of his left hand pierce the synthetic flesh, growling in rage he turned to Tamaki.

"Break out the uniforms, we're coming out of the closet, full armor and impact plates, contact Minami, and Inoue you get ahold of your second, I want both cells loaded for war, Kallen dear contact Ohgi and have his VTOL's on standby, Saoko-San, Jerry, gear your Gekka's out for anti-Knightmare combat, I want everyone ready and on the road in twenty, MOVE IT PEOPLE!" With that the prince declared all out war on the JLF.

_**In Transit**_

Adjusting her tactical vest Kallen slide another fragmentation grenade to her chest, they'd barely had enough time to get the uniforms unpacked and get changed before they were out the door, so the entire group was literally just grabbing whatever the truck had been loaded with, whistling slightly Inoue looked Kallen up and down.

"You know I never actually saw our uniforms before today, I gotta say, we look amazing," Suzaku was eyeballing her as well and only nodded in agreement. Nunnally chuckled as she threw in,

"Hey I'm just glad the chest plates don't have breasts on them, Milly designed these and I'm gonna admit...I was concerned," the other women in the APC paused then nodded in agreement. The base uniform wasn't really that special, it was simple black BDU's with silver trim and festooned with pockets, over that was worn a heavy ceramic chestguard with connected thigh plates dangling below with straps to secure them, over that was worn a tactical vest. The real eye grabbers were definitely the German style great coats, they reached a bit past mid-calve and trimmed with heavy silver embroidery mimicking the Knight of the Rounds. Topping it off was an integrated ceramic shelled gasmask with nightvision and a standard Britannian infantry helmet over it.

"Yeah...we look completely badass" Inoue stated for the group, grinning they all broke out laughing, yes, yes they did.

_**Kawaguchi Lake convention centre military peremiter**_

As the APC approached the perimeter Lelouch jumped out and walked towards the news van he had been looking for, slamming his fist repeatedly on the door he waited until a blonde opened up, looking down in shock at the masked man he stuttered "Zero!?" Before Lelouch shushed him.

"Deitard Ried how would you like to make history?" The man in question returned an unsettlingly excited grin,

"What would you have me do?"

_**Enraged**_

Cornelia wanted murder, pure and simple, and while she wished to lash out at her sisters Knight she couldn't, little brat pulled the 'I'm taking a shower while I crawl out the window' trick on her and she wouldn't judge for things she herself had fallen for. As she was counting the number of ways she was going to eviscerate this Kusakabe a news van approached her perimeter with...son of a...with Zero riding on top. Staring down from her Knightmare she couldn't help but applaud the audacity, the man just stood there staring at her, gritting her teeth she pulled out her gunblade and aimed it at the masked man,

"Well well well, imagine meeting you here Zero, are you a member of the Japan Liberation Front? Or Perhaps you're here to help, ha. Well, I suppose I can at least take revenge for my fallen siblings!" The response was...unexpected,

"Heh..hahaha! Really Nelly? Clovis the prancing little dandy who tortured little girls to death to try and become immortal? And little Carine? The psychotic who literally got off by killing people? You'd be willing to sacrifice Euphia for those two PIGS?!" She gasped lowering her weapon, the mans words were laced with so much...hatred, and that nickname...only four people-"I'm here to make a deal, let us through and I'll handle these idiots, apparently letting them live after I cut off the good bits was a bad idea and I don't want anyone else to die from my misjudgment, its up to you Onee-chan." Eleven jibberish, sighing she slid the pistol back into its holster and motioned for her men to back off, nodding to her in respect Zero's parting words where, "You were always the most reasonable of your generation, its such a pity you serve a genocidal, infanticidal madman." Leaving her in shock the convoy made its way to the hotel.

_**Equally Enraged, slightly more composed**_

The hotel was being covered by more then 30 burai's and a metric fuck-ton of infantry, it actually disgusted him somewhat, there was no way this operation was authorized and this accounted for roughly 15% of the JLF's forces, at this rate Cornelia's inevitable counterattack would slaughter the rest of these idiots. Sighing to himself he did his Geass thing to the guards as they approached the gate and walked into the main lobby, with the rattle of sound suppressed SMG's his people tore the JLF mooks apart in seconds, gingerly walking around the blood pools he made his way to the elevator.

"Set the explosives for remote detonation these idiots are the ones we _wanted_ to weed out of the JLF so kill any that give you trouble, we'll try to save the rest from themselves later." As he entered the elevator Nunnally, Suzaku, and Kallen joined him, Suzu hefted his SAW in one hand as he helped Nunnally hop over the stack of dead bodies, Kallen adjusted her battle rifle and Lelouch made sure both his pistols where chambered. As the doors closed and the elevator made its way up Lelouch started for a second before turning to Kallen,

"Hey, its our song, good old Louis" He said cheerfully, Kallen smiled and lifted his mask as she kissed him, after the moment passed she pulled it back down and leaned against him happily,

"Hey, all a girl needs is a kiss to build a dream on."

_**Holding the captors hostage**_

Luluka was furious, she was sooooo damn furious that she could barely contain her rage, these idiots, these FUCKING morons that she and her brother had left to rot had the audacity to hold innocents hostage and thought they'd face no repercussions...but no...she had to keep quiet, she couldn't let anyone know what she really was and then...there was a hand groping her right tit, glaring over at the smirking terrorist she decided that she'd blind him before he died, just for laughs. Then she noticed Nina sobbing, the guard over their group let her breast be so he could turn and scream at the little teenager,

"Shut the fuck up whore! What you're feeling is nothing compared to what we've had to go through!" Groaning she thought 'Right right, three meals a day, clothes on your back, warm bed in the barracks, you've had it soooo much harder then those in the ghettos you fucking prick', unfortunately Nina kept sobbing and gasped out,

"Why do the Elevens want to hurt us!" The mans face contorted as he smacked Nina across the face with his rifle butt, screaming at the top of his lungs he said,

"We're Japanese not Elevens!" As he raised his rifle for another strike Euphemia popped up and yelled at the man, oh fucking hell.

"Stop it this instant, I am Euphimia li Britannia and I demand you idiots let me talk to your leader!" Everyone in the room gasped in shock, the soldiers starting homing in on her when Luluka yelled,

"GODDAMNIT EUPHIA!" Jerking her hands forward her knives fell from their sheaths, spinning faster then her guards could see she slit both their throats, finishing the twirl both blades left her hands and embedded themselves in the backs of the two guards approaching her sister, diving to the side she scooped up one of the falling guards rifles and mowed down the last one with automatic fire. Grabbing the other guards rifle she watched the door as the last guards ran in and wasted the them both. Standing gingerly and ignoring the stares from her friends, family, and strangers she approached the two that had taken knives to the back, prying them out she noticed the one who groped her was still alive, she flipped him over.

"So, was the free show worth it? I'm thinking not, was harassing my friends worth it?" Glancing down at the spreading blood pool she grinned, "Guessing not" The man shuddered and gasped,

"You're...you're a demon..." Grinning she stood up with his pistol in her hand, she cocked the hammer and aimed at his head,

"Bitch, I'm the fucking Shinigami," and she blew his brains over several overweight businessmen.

_**Enter Zero**_

The four of them rushed into the room as they heard Luluka say "...I'm the fucking Shinigami" then the resulting gunshot, they slammed into the room and saw the carnage, everyone was staring at Luluka in horror, considering she was splattered with blood he couldn't really blame them. Nunnally looked back and forth and sighed, with a pouting tone she said,

"Nee-chan did you have to kill everyone on your own? Seriously did you think we'd forget about you?" Grinning sheepishly Luluka had an 'oops' look on her face as she glanced at the dead bodies, sighing Lelouch said

"Milly, Euphia close your eyes," with that done he cast his Geass, "None of you remember what Luluka did to these soldiers, the blood on her clothes is from trying to help survivors, we the Black Knights are responsible for these kills." With that everything went back to normal, well it would obviously not have worked on Nina if she wasn't passed out, lucky break, motioning for Luluka and Euphemia to follow him he said "Rest of you get these people out of here, I have an idiot to kill." They entered the elevator as they headed for the top floor, looking pensive Euphemia said,

"So...umm...Lelouch I take it?" He nodded, "Oh good ok, so what are we doing now?" He stared at her a moment then let out a truly exasperated sigh,

"Now I keep you in direct line of sight so nothing happens to you, seriously Nelly would never forgive me if you got yourself hurt! Also I'm gonna go murder Kusakabe, he serves no purpose." Looking a bit frightened she muttered "Oh" then kept silent, Luluka looked at him with an eye twitch,

"Gun" He was about to ask what she meant when she repeated "GUN!", grasping what she wanted he pulled his spare pistol out and handed it to his twin, smiling happily she relaxed against the wall. Coughing lightly to hide a laugh he pulled his other pistol out and clicked off the safety, as the doors opened he shot all four guards as they headed to the room the Lieutenant Colonel had taken for his own,

"Kill them all we don't give a flying fuck about what they have to say and I plan on blowing this hotel up in five minutes, lets get this over with."

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**I want to write more but I have to sleep! Curse this frail human body! Well, hope there aren't too many typos on this one kinda posting it in pre-edited form due to me about to pass out from exhaustion, enjoy, and as always pleeeeease review!**


	18. Chapter 18

_**If all else fails use fire, if that fails use explosives, if that doesn't work use more explosives, there are very few situations in life that can't be rectified with a big ass boom-Nunnally vi Brittania **_

* * *

_**Kawaguchi Lake Convention centre May 10th 2017 A.T.B.**_

Not pausing for his normal theatrics Lelouch kicked the door in with his pistol drawn, there where four guards and the Lieutenant-Colonel in the room, he saw the man eyeing Luluka with a bit of fear as he visibly gulped. Weird...glancing around Lelouch noticed a bank of CCTV monitors one of which was displaying the room the hostages had been in.

'Looks like you have a fan sis' he quipped, her only response was an amused snort, deciding to address the little man Lelouch asked, "So you are Kusakabe?," the man snarled drawing his sword, "I'll take that as a yes."

Both he and Luluka whipped their pistols up and systematically executed the guards, as the Colonel stood there staring in shock Lelouch shot the hand holding the katana sending a spray of blood and bone across the room. Grabbing the mans throat with his prosthetic hand he pushed Kusakabe against the window while casting his Geass, "You will tell me what I want to know fool!" The man struggled in pain for another moment then relaxed, looking passive,

"Ok," an oily smile slid across Lelouch's face as he said,

"Why are you here, really?" The colonol replied deadpan,

"I was ordered by our new leadership to cause a large disturbence, I had planned this attack beforehand so it was simple happestance." Growling Lelouch tried to keep his cool, it wasn't working,

"Why does there need to be a disturbance?" The man seemed to try and resist the question, obviously fighting what he was about to say...interesting, finally gasping the man replied

"While the authorities are focused on us the rest of the JLF is preparing for a series of terrorist attacks against the Tokyo settlement, hospitals, schools, government building, and industrial centers." A pair of shocked gasps could be heard behind him, gritting his teeth he continued,

"Where, when, what numbers, and why the change from military to terrorist actions?!"

"I have no idea I was not privy to that, within the next two months, as for numbers I'm unsure we've been folding in the remnants of all the cells absorbed by The Black Prince's forces into our own, this is what prompted the change in leadership. Simply put Kyoto has pulled all funding from us and without Tohdoh as a moderating force the JLF has lost focus, I don't personally care as long as I get to kill Britannians." Finally having heard enough Lelouch let go of his geass and his self control, as the Colonel retook control of his mind Lelouch screwed the hot barrel of his pistol into the mans eye.

"You ignorant, selfish, self righteous fool, you do realize you've condemned the rest of Japan, right? Your hubris has changed the game and this escalation will force the princess to crackdown in ways that you can't even begin to fathom you insignificant fuck! To top it all off you committed the greatest cardinal sin, you endangered my sisters...when you get to hell tell Clovis Lelouch vi Britannia sends his regards." Seething he didn't let the terrified man respond as he simultaneously pulled the trigger spraying the window with gore and kneeing the corpse through the cracked glass, he watched the body fall before it was lost in the twilight gloom, feeling nothing. Letting out a disgusted snarl he holstered the pistol and turned around motioning for his sisters to follow him, Euphia looking ill and Luluka pensive.

"Now what brother? Luluka asked looking and sounding a bit rattled, Euphemia mirroring her, 'Wonder if its due to the dumbasses revelation or the way I acted, maybe both', shaking his head he said,

"Sis...I have no idea, I should have seen this coming, cause and effect, I left the dumb brutes and blood thirsty sadists to rot while also gutting a decent sized army of its prime rank and file and best officers, I should have seen a merger coming." Sighing deeply his shoulders slumped, he started a bit when Euphemia wrapped him in a hug,

"Lelouch...what could you have done? You said it yourself you left them for Clovis to deal with, and let me tell you I got to look at his files before you blew up my house, the man did next to nothing to moderate them, this was going to happen regardless." Smiling down at his lovely sister he returned the hug then pulled himself free, sighing again he motioned for Luluka to follow as he hooked his arm through Euphia's,

"Ok Luluka do your ninja thing and get down there with the rest of the hostages and get them on the rafts, I'll be taking Euphemia on that ridiculous boat so Cornelia doesn't have an aneurysm, try not to start shit with the bobbies I know how you are with authority figures," She nodded as they got into the elevator,

"Lou...this changes everything if we can't stop these idiots-"

"I know, Euphia let Nelly know whats going on, and" casting his geass he met her eyes, "don't tell her how I got the information, just say I beat it out of him before I threw him out a window." Her eyes glowed faintly for a moment then she said,

"Of course brother," hating himself for having to do that he parted ways with his twin as he prepared for the Black Knights grand debut.

_**Military Perimeter**_

Cornelia was watching the front of the convention center and the pure mayhem that Zero's cronies were causing, the JLF troops repeatedly charged into the entrance to only rush back out moments later with significantly reduced numbers. The Burai's weren't fairing much better, every time one would hold still for a moment it would be pelted with a half dozen anti-tank rockets from the windows, there only appeared to be handful left after less then twenty minutes. General Darlton coughed politely to get her attention before he spoke,

"I find Zero's people frighteningly well coordinated, they are performing faints and counterattacks flawlessly and they have a firm understanding of anti-knightmare tactics, also I must say the JLF pilots lead me to believe Princess Euphemia's findings, these are the dregs of their ranks." Tearing her gaze from the chaos she glanced back to her subordinate,

"What do you mean by that?" The older man chuckled a bit before continuing,

"You haven't noticed due to your worry for your sister so don't berate yourself for it, but the pilots are, to be blunt, awful." Guilford nodded in agreement as the General said this, "They're only using mass firing tactics, they aren't using cover, they only fire when they stop long enough to aim, and I have not seen a single one of them use their slash harkens which would have easily chewed that chokepoint apart. No, Zero's people are that good and these JLF are that bad." Cornelia simply nodded as she turned in time to see the last knightmare explode, sighing in disgust she could only hope Euphia wasn't mixed up in the fighting. Shortly after that the weapons fire from the hotel tapered off, the ragged remains of the JLF infantry cautiously reformed ranks and started towards the bullet riddled blood drenched entrance. A few moments after the last soldiers entered the building it shuddered as a massive series of explosions tore through the lower levels of the hotel, apperently causing enough damage for the support pylons to snap allowing the entire thing to slip into the lake.

"EUPHEMIA!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, nearly falling from her Knightmare in her shock, a rolling cloud of smoke and steam made its way across the waters surface when several small shapes started appearing from the opaque curtain. Life rafts, dozens of life rafts all filled with terrified civilians started making their way to the shore, and as several spotlamps turned on she saw an incredibly tacky yacht in the center, its entire deck covered in soldiers at parade rest. Closing her cockpit she activated her factsphere and zoomed in and let out a small gasp, Guilford's voice cut across the comm,

"Credit where credits due, they look impressive," ranks of at least three dozen soldiers were lined perfectly along the deck, all wearing menacing masks and helmets with faintly glowing red lenses, their heavy European style great coats blowing in the wind while the man known as Zero stood front and center, next to him was a smiling Euphemia,

"Eu..Euphia..." she sighed in relief, then Zero spoke

_**Declaration of intent**_

Getting the confirmation from Ried that the cameras would not be cut Lelouch sent the signal to turn the spot lights on, as their hijacked ship was bathed in white light he activated the microphone that had been given to him,

"My dear Britannians, all of the hostages from the hotel are safe and sound I Zero return them to you unharmed," Taking a breath Lelouch steeled himself then continued "We are the Black Knights." With what he personally considered a ridiculous flourish he spread his arms wide allowing his cape to billow behind him, "The Japan Liberation Front cowardly took innocent Britannian civilians hostage, and then mercilessly executed them. It was a wanton and meaningless act, therefore they have been punished, just as former Viceroy Clovis and his short lived successor Carine where punished for ordering the slaughter of countless unarmed Japanese. We cannot standby and allow such cruelty to be carried out, and so we made them pay for his actions. I will not repudiate battle on a fair and level field, but neither will I tolerate a one-sided massacre of the weak by the strong. The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to die! The Emperor was not wrong, men are not created equal, there are the weak and there are the strong, but it is not the prerogative of the strong to feed on the weak! NO! For it is the solemn duty of the strong to _protect_ the weak! Britannian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, it matters not who you are we will be their aegis! Those of you in power, fear us! Those of you without it, rally behind us! We, the Black Knights, shall be the ones who stand in judgement of this world!" Glaring directly towards the camera while pointing at it, he finished the speech with, "nemo me impune lacessit!"

With that the lights switched off and Nunnally yelled,

"OK kids time to skedaddle! Squad one and squad two, take the remaining rafts, squad three take the mini sub, lets move people!" With that the Knights in question scrambled to their escape routes as Suzaku fired off the smoke bombs cloaking the vessel in purple mist, turning to Euphemia he motioned for her to come forward.

"Sorry about this Euphia but leaving you in the middle of the lake will stall Cornelia long enough for us to get out of here and not get blown up, I hope you understand," She just giggled while waving a hand,

"Think nothing of it I know exactly what she'd do to you lot if I wasn't in the crossfire, get out of here and go do some good, I'll let big sis know what those idiots are planning, and Lelouch, don't be a stranger ok?" Nodding sheepishly he ran to the mini sub and crawled into its damp fishy smelling confines, as he settled in Kallen sat down next to him, removing her mask she wrinkled her nose while glancing over,

"Honey you take me to the most romantic places," With a laugh he wrapped his arm around her as the sub dived, 'Phase One Complete' he thought to himself smiling.

_**Tokyo Settlement May 22 2017 A.T.B**_

It had been almost two weeks since the Black Knights introduced themselves to the world and the reception had been more then they could have hoped for, Zero had become an icon over night and for the first time in nearly a decade the Japanese had hope. On an odd note random Latin phrases had become quite popular as graffiti art, as Kallen walked beside Lelouch through the business district she heard him grunt in approval of a rather artistic 'sic semper tyrannis' spray painted across the honorary Britannian registration office. They'd been playing up the defenders of the weak on a near nightly basis wiping out drug dealers, prostitution rings, and slavery rackets with extreme prejudice, she'd never questioned her motivations before but honestly this Robin Hood crap felt pretty good. Her reverey was broken upon hearing the cries of an injured man and the snarls of a gang.

"Fucking Eleven, you think you can get away with charging us just because you're an honorary, bastard!" One of the men yelled as he kicked the vendor in the gut, the rest of the gang was kicking the prone man laughing and taunting the entire time. Before she could do anything Lelouch stepped forward throwing the biggest one several feet while taking a defensive stance, cocking a smile her way he turned back to the men with murder on his face.

"The Duchess _really_ doesn't approve of neanderthals beating on her employees, so if you'd do me the favor of not wasting my time back off and leave, _now_." Rolling her eyes at her fiances audacity she stepped forward herself throwing her full nobility into her voice,

"Indeed, I don't invest in these neighborhoods to feed the commoner filth for free, if you wish to acquire product you must pay for it," She eyed the bruised and quite confused young man, she shot him quick wink and turned back to the gang. They seemed to be stunned for a moment when the leader sneered pulling a rusty knife out,

"Bitch if you're a noble then I'm the fucking Viceroy, now yer gon-" he didn't get to finish his sentence before Lelouch pulled out a pistol and leveled it at his forehead.

"Duchess may I?" Kallen feigned a sigh then shrugged sadly,

"Sorry it'll cause a stir, last time you did this we had to spend three hours with the police," He flashed her a smile as he pulled a long cylinder from his pocket and started screwing it onto gun.

"No worries Duchess I brought a sound suppressor this time!" Keeping the grin on his face as he once again pointed the pistol at the leader, "Come on punk, make my day." The gang was now thoroughly wigged out, they started backing up and as one they sprinted away from the terrifying duo. Chuckling to himself he removed the suppressor and holstered his pistol, "That was too fun love, next time I think I'll shoot one of them in the foot." Shaking her head ruefully she squatted next to the injured man grabbing his attention,

"Hey man hold still, this is gonna sting like a son of a bitch but it'll heal your injuries by the end of the day," jabbing the military grade nanobot stimpack into his neck his eyes immediately cleared as he started registering what happened.

"Wha..what no it'd take a months wages to pay back a stim!" The man started flailing but Lelouch squeezed his shoulder a bit too hard to get his attention,

"She gave you a gift my friend, no worries, here." Reaching into his pocket he handed him a card with a caricatured crane being impaled by a sword on one side and a phone number on the other, "If you ever decide you want to do something with your life give this number a call, when they ask for your sign say "Tortoise", if you have what it takes I may be talking to you later, aside from that take care friend." With that the couple stood and walked away from the flummoxed hotdog vendor, as they were about to turn the corner they heard him yell "HEY!", turning he said,

"Shigeru, my name is Shigeru," smiling they both bowed respectfully and Kallen said,

"Pleasure to meet you Shigeru, have a pleasant day." Twenty minutes later they had entered Stadtfeld Industries and made their way to the secret labs, the rest of the family and the staff involved with weaponizing the F.L.E.I.J.A device were already there. Even C.C. was in attendance, after grilling her on her knowledge of the Geass Directorate she had insisted on being here for this, she sat on the opposite side of the group munching on a pepperoni lovers snuggling the cheese-kun plushie Nunnally had bought her. Lelouch turned to the only person in the room smoking and asked,

"Are the coordinates set Rakshata?" She smiled and nodded, tapping a few keys they were given a satellite view of a mountain in Mongolia, she motioned towards a blinking red button,

"All that needs to be done is to launch, as you asked there is no limiter involved with this warhead since its a desert setting, I've set the detonation level 20 kilometers , just in case." She took a drag from cigarette then continued, "if its all the same I'd like to avoid breaching the mantle." Nodding Lelouch walked up to the panel and stared at it hesitantly, Kallen couldn't help but feel for him, this was his decision, they needed to test this device and using it on the organization that had been hunting them for almost ten years was fitting. As he stared at the button for a solid minute she walked up to her fiance and grasped his arm, before she knew it Suzaku, Nunnally and Luluka all stood in a semi-circle around the launch icon, reaching forward as one all five hit the button at once. Somewhere in the East China Sea an Indian made stealth sub fired off a missile and dived almost immediately, this early in the morning no one in the Chinese Federation noticed the contrail as the missile made its way to LEO, as it entered free fall it was fully unobserved by the underpaid and understaffed observation teams of the Federation. In a moment that changed the world forever the missile detonated above the mountain, in a pink flash an 80 kilometer wide sphere burned through the atmosphere and devoured the land below it. The mountain, the city below it, and most importantly the thought elevator it had protected disappeared in an instant.

"My god...what have we done," A shocked Rakshata whispered as the smoke cleared and they observed the glassed hemisphere seared into the earth below, everyone involved in the project looked horrified, but only one person was able to observe the five people involved with the launch. C.C. watched the feral grins spreading across the faces of her contractors and shuddered as she realized she saw only lust for revenge in their eyes.

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**Edit: Right the latin, 'nemo me impune lacessit' is a personal favorite of mine, it translates to "No one provokes me with impunity" which just sounded absolutely right for Zero to state, 'Sic Sempre Tyrannis' is "thus always to tyrants" usually said after killing what said said killer considered a tyrant. Enjoy!**

**Ok I admit it I forgot the damn Hotel was in the middle of the Island, Jerry and Saoko where supposed to make their badass debut but it would just not work with the geography so I came up with the JLF castoffs not utilizing the Knightmare frames sole benefit, mobility. Anyone with a vague understanding of tactics and military history will tell you that if you have to hold still to shoot on the front line yer gonna die, simple as that. Also I had written an entire segment of Guilford doing Suzaku's work and taking out the Raikou in the Lancelot Club when I decided that despite my hetero-love for the man I despise the Raikou and didn't want it in my fic, seriously its like the Guntank but ten times worse. Besides you guys don't need me to tell you Guilfords awesome, its a known fact, so in this fic their was no mysteriously pointless maintenance tunnel, hope you guys don't mind.**


	19. Chapter 19

_**"Indiscriminate retribution is a vile, bloody, dangerous sword, its also cathartic as hell"-Lelouch vi Britannia**_

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_**Pendragon, Royal Imperial Palace, Throne Room main office May 23, A.T.B.**_

"What. The. Fuck." These three words have never been spoken by Emperor Charles Zi Britannia, they were too unrefined, too pedestrian, too crude, yet they were all he could say. His older brother sighed, drinking strait from a bottle of tequila,

"Brother I have no goddamn clue, one minute I'm communing with the directorate next thing I know the sword of Akasha disintegrates and the thought elevator shuts down, I sent planes to check out the base and its just gone, bloody gone, a forty, that's four tens by the way, a forty kilometer wide bowl of glass has replaced that entire area of the world." Sighing Charles downed a bottle of wine, something else he never indulged in before, today was a day of firsts.

"So...what does this mean for the plan?" His brother broke out laughing rolling his eyes across the room as he took another pull from the bottle,

"What plan? Its done, while we can still commune with the World of C we can't effect it, the plan is now defunct, whoever did this has undone fifty years of work in a matter of seconds, little brother, we're officially screwed." Rubbing his face in frustration he asked,

"Can't we, I don't know...make a new one?" With that his brother just rolled his eyes as he finished off the tequila,

"Charles the entire reason we searched the damn things out was because we _couldn't_ build new ones, seriously as it stands I have no research, no researchers, and no Geass users, and I _tried_, I can't gift anyone a Geass, I doubt that tramp C.C. could either, the games changed and we're playing with cards while they're playing with chess pieces, nothing meshes anymore, the balance is unsettled and I have no idea what to do." Groaning inwardly Charles silently hoped that his son wasn't responsible for this.

_**Partially Reconstructed Viceroy Palace, Area Eleven May 24 A.T.B.**_

Euphemia was reading a report about a mysterious meteor strike in Mongolia when Cornelia sat down next to her sighing heavily, ignoring the strong arm that pulled her close she kept her eyes on the tablet. After a moment she sighed and looked over to her sister,

"What is it sis?" Cornelia looked pensive then coming to a decision she asked,

"You've studied the Elevens language correct?" With that Euphemia smiled and nodded,

"Yes, my L7 implants allow higher cognitive understanding, I've been studying it for three weeks now and can speak as well as a normal highschooler." Suitably impressed Cornelia asked,

"What does Onee-Chan mean?" Looking at Cornelia in slight confusion she just shrugged and replied,

"Fitting you should ask that one, its roughly translated to 'honored elder sister', why do you ask?" Cornelia stiffened instantly then stared down at Euphia wide eyed, starting to get a bit wierded out Euphemia asked, "Wha...what is it?" Her sister relaxed a bit her eyes narrowed and she asked deadpan

"Where are our siblings?" Euphemia's eyes widened in shock as she let out a weak "...meep..."

_**Ashford Acadamy, Student Council Center, Lamperouge Wing four hours later**_

Suzaku and Luluka where busy eyeing each other with knives drawn grinning wickedly , this was part of the game, who would blink first? As they circled each other they saw Lelouch and Kallen cuddling watching Phantom of the Opera and Nunnally folding origami with C.C., neither of them let this information distract themselves, as they were about to lunge a massive 'thump thump thump' echoed against their rooms door. It said alot about their family that before the second thump was done Lelouch and Kallen both had SAW's aimed at the door, Nunnaly had a grenade launcher primed and Suzaku and Luluka had both grabbed battle rifles and aimed them down range, C.C. just squeezed Cheese-kun.

"Erm...high! Hello? Sorry guys she figured it out! Please please please don't shoot we're alone I promise! Oh wait, Guilford's here but I think thats fine? Guys?" They all relaxed recognizing Euphemias voice, Lelouch clicked a button and the door unlocked. The doors swung open and the three figures stared down the fireteams worth of weapons quite admirably, Guilford turned to Cornelia and simply stated,

"They are most defiantly your siblings milady," Nodding with a smirk Cornelia entered the room,

"I taught them well, there's no kill quite like overkill, hello my lovelies, how have you been?" Squealing with no intent of restraint Nunnally dropped her HEAT launcher and dove right into Cornelia's arms.

"Onee-chan! Its so good to see you!" she cheered as she plastered Cornelia in kisses, Cornelia just broke out in laughter swinging her little sister around, the rest of the family lowered their weapons, less out of respect and more for the lack of precision, they might hit Nunnally. Shrugging to each other the twins dropped their guns and walked forward, Kallen latching to Lelouch and Suzaku stalking in Lulukas shadow.

"Soooooo..." Lelouch said, the silence was long and Luluka eventually sighed and said, "We're sorry for making you guys look like bitches at the hotel ok? It wasn't personal we just needed to get the message out and it worked." Both Guilford and Cornelia's expressions darkened at that but Nunnally broke that immediately,

"Oh come on no one was getting out of that horseshit pretty, besides who cares we're planning on capping dad for trying to kill us anyway." Sighing, again, Lelouch typed in a few commands into his PDA as he motioned for Cornelia and Guilford to come forward.

"Before you make any actions against us, before you judge us, view this information, if you want snacks ask my bodyguard when she arrives she'll most likely not attempt to murder you despite personal preference, its a kunoichi thing, don't ask." Grabbing his cell he dialed Jerry and said, "Code Orange, yuuup we're blown, dunno but she'll want to talk to you, yeah our rooms, please tell your wife not to murder the shit out of them, ok bye." Handing the PDA to the Viceroy he turned to Nunnally, "Nunu why don't you grab all the paperwork we pulled off the OSI agents we killed?" His little sister smiled happy and scampered off with a,

"Hai!" The trio of party crashers eyed Leluch respectfully, no hesitation, no stalling, he simply appraised the situation and despite it being stacked against him he'd taken full control. Leaning over so only his master could hear Guilford whispered,

"I feel like I'm dealing with the Emperor rather then a teenager, his presence is..." Cornelia nodded mutely, silently wondering what exactly her brother had been up to. Loading the proffered data to there tablets they started reading, an hour and two pots of tea later they sat there numbly staring at the wall. Speaking softly Kallen broke the silence,

"Yes, kind of our reaction, while we'd been building up forces, finances, and material, we only recently found out how truly depraved the empire was, its...not good." Coming back to herself Cornelia stared Kallen down appraising her,

"Who exactly are you? My siblings have been strangely mum about you three," before anything else could be said Lelouch wrapped an arm around her waist glaring at his sister,

"She happens to be the honorable Duchess Kallen Stadtfeld, multi-billionaire philanthropic industrialist, and also my wife to be, and I swear Nelly sister or not if I hear one racist thing from you your men will never find the goddamn bodies, are we clear?!" The shock was evident on all three newcomers faces, the other five occupants didn't look surprised in the slightest, trying to diffuse the situation Kallen patted his hand,

"Now now dear you're well aware I don't need you protecting me we just let the world think you're in charge to avoid headaches" smiling sheepishly he dropped his head and muttered,

"Right right sorry dear, you know how it is," Euphemia broke the tension with a heavy laugh and a muttered "men", Lelouch just sighed again handing over the OSI written orders while Luluka spoke up,

"You guys finish reading that until our Knight shows up, then we'll give you guys our biographies, C.C. love, here's my credit card order anything you want along with enough to feed our guests," Letting out an excited 'eep' that only dogs could hear C.C. grabbed the card and ran off.

_**Enroute Back to the Viceroy Palace four hours later**_

They rode in silence, not one of them knowing what to say, Euphemia felt a bit of shame for breaking her promise to her family but lying directly to Cornelia was kind of like juggling live hand grenades, sure you could do it but it was only a matter of time before it blew up in your face. Her sister spoke up holding her forehead,

"You know, I was aware the empire had been...different under father, but I had never guessed how far we've fallen...and these force numbers, why would they share it with us? To scare us? That isn't how Lady Marianne's children operate, they don't bluff something like that...so why?" Guilford cleared his throat and spoke,

"Milady...I think they hope to bring you and your forces to their side when they seize Japan, it makes sense, Clovis and Carine's forces were mirror images of their masters" Euphemia spoke up,

"I.e. useless," Guilford gave her a twitch of a smile and a nod of his head before he continued,

"You on the other hand they've taken a painstaking amounts of effort to not damage your equipment or hurt your troops, and the revelations about Stadtfeld industries clarifies several thing, the fact the Vincent's are near ready implies the Prince had given Lloyd the combat data from the Lancelot to better prepare our forces, the Lady Stadtfeld donated over ten million pounds to rebuild the Viceroy palace, and any attempts on your life have met with the heavy end of the Black Knights hammer. Milady, your siblings are doing everything in their power to make sure you stay alive."

"I...I need time to think about this...if...if everything he brought to our attention is true I can't in good conscience keep following the Emperor...I actually agree with them on this point, I don't want to see the empire fall but fathers been..." Euphemia quipped,

"A cancer?" Cornelia nodded in agreement. They rode in silence the rest of the way to the palace.

_**Tokyo Settlement June 3 2017 A.T.B**_

The day was indistinguishable from any other, the biggest change being that the Vincent prototypes were finalized and produced in the dozens to be dolled out to Cornelia's commanders to acquire combat data, but that wasn't what made the day interesting, no that would be the explosions. Across the settlement hundreds of bombs went off butchering children in their schools, the infirm in their hospital rooms, and government workers typing away at their desks, but the one bomb that was a mistake, the one that would kick off a war that would claim more human lives then any other in history was one set off at the Stadtfeld Industries headquarters.

As it would later be found out a JLF member had murdered one of the Eleven workers and wormed his way into the barracks, he'd planted the bomb there in hopes of killing Britannians but being a moron he didn't register the fact that the facilities where only for numbered personal, he didn't realize this due to the high quality living arrangements. So while the bomb killed dozens of Japanese workers families it did next to no damage to Britannia, what it did do was cause several gas lines to rupture and explode throughout the facility blowing up the office of one Kallen Kozuki Stadtfeld. While it didn't kill her it put her in intensive care, and while this would normally be a great thing for the "freedom fighters" the notorious 'Boss Red' was a folk hero for the Japanese population, with her injury and the deaths of so many of her dependents the Japanese howled for blood, and Zero supplied the blade leaving the world to whoa in sorrow.

"I. Will. Murder. Them. All." Lelouch growled as he prowled back and forth through the hospital waiting room, Suzaku keeping pace with him the look of rage on his face equal to his brothers, Nunnally was sobbing inconsolably while Luluka tried to calm her down. Seething and gritting his teeth he snarled, "I will find their families, their friends, the very things that give them joy and I will end them all, I will burn their homes to the ground and salt the very earth! I will destroy everything they've ever loved and piss on the ashes!" For his part Suzaku just grunted in agreement, civilians, women, _children_ and his sister in all but name, the Japanese man was in full agreement with his brother.

"Narita, they're hiding in their hole in Narita, they've been taunting Cornelia over open channels most of the day, apparently this whole thing was a last "fuck you" to Britannia trying to drag your sisters forces into a kill zone." Lelouch stopped pacing a moment and turned to his brother,

"Narita...yes that could work...Rakashata said the limiter could reduce the blast to 8,000 meters...hmmm..." eyeing Lelouch suspiciously Suzaku asked,

"Bro...what are you going to do?" Lelouch just grinned at his friend with a wild look in his eyes,

"I'm going to burn the world dear brother, burn it to the mother fucking ground."

_**Narita Mountain base, G1 Mobile Command Center June 5 2017 A.T.B**_

Cornelia hit the zoom as she observed the forces defending the mountain, it was surreal what the Eleven's had managed to gather, cobbled together Glasgow's and Burai's made up the majority of their forces but there were still dozens of Sutherlands and hundreds of tanks, her forces could take the fortress but it wouldn't be easy. She heard Euphia growl a curse before she said,

"A meat grinder, they slaughtered all those innocents to bring us into a meat grinder, we'll win the day but it will be pariahic at best, this is more like the insanity you had to deal with at Area 18 then anything." Nodding her agreement while rubbing her eyes Cornelia tapped a few icons to open the mass broadcast system,

"Men we will shortly be assaulting the terrorist stronghold, be strong an-" her speech was cut off as an emergency broadcast signal overtook every line of communication in Area Eleven. The screen fluctuated for a moment when the image of Zero appeared, but rather then looking immaculate the front lens of his mask was cracked and his opera suit spotted with ash,

"My dear Japan," he said, sounding tired, burnt out, "my heart is filled with sorrow, two days ago the JLF struck against the people of this nation brutally murdering innocent Japanese and Britannian civilians, even going so far as to strike philanthropists who've done nothing but try to better the lives of the subjugated Japanese people!" Gasping Euphemia turned to her sister and simply said,

"Oh shit." Zero paused a moment for this all to sink in as the screen split, the new panal was displaying Cornelia's army surronding Narita, taking a breath their masked brother continued,

"While the Viceroy has made the right move and is mobilizing to wipe out the JLF vermin she will not manage to get them all and it would cost many innocent Britannian soldiers their lives to do this honorable task...that is why I have deemed it necessary to remove the threat myself." With that there was a bright flash in the sky, a pink sphere came down from the heavans kissing the mountain top, atomizing it instantly, the shocked task force watched in awe as the sphere consumed the entire mountain down to its base, then retracted in on itself. Gale force winds started knocking Knightmares around and forced several of her planes to crash land, when the spectacle was over a large crater was all that remained of the mountain.

"Witness my power, this is what will happen to _anyone_ who lashes out against the weak, we the Black Knights will no longer handle the worlds burdens with velvet gloves, meet the iron gauntlet, Aut vincere aut mori"

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**Word of advice from a married man, never fuck with a persons significant other, the repercussions will far outweigh whatever gains you may have acquired, also "Aut vincere aut mori"=Either to conquer or to die**


	20. Chapter 20

**Author Note-Should I bring Mao into this? And would you folks rather him get offed in a humorous manner or end up palling around with the family since they have that geass inhibitor schematic? Honestly having a psychopath chilling with them may end up being hilarious, lemme know what you think.**

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**I love that the Britannian response to our WMD's was to group up and announce where they were going, convenience at its best-Luluka Vi Britannia**

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_**Black Knights Base June 6 2017 A.T.B.**_

An incredibly hungover Lelouch answered the vid call, as the image of Tohdoh-Sensai glared down at Lelouch he went into autopilot and straitened himself out to stare back at his former master,

"General Tohdoh, whats up?" The older man stared at him for a solid minute before sighing,

"Lelouch...why?" Digging around for a bottle with...anything in it Lelouch sighed in frustration and sat down, staring back at his General growling,

"They got Kallen," a tightening of the eyes was Tohdoh's only response but it was enough, he understood, letting out a rare sigh he asked,

"Her condition?" Growling out a small snarl of victory Lelouch found a bottle of scotch and downed half its contents before replying,

"Stable, was hit and miss for a bit there, she'll make a full recovery within the next couple days though, they have her pumped full of military grade stims and the doctors know they'll have a populist uprising on their hands if she...dies..." Grimacing at this Lelouch finished the bottle off quickly, Tohodoh looked at him in worry,

"Lelouch are you sure you're-" He was interrupted with the sound of shattering glass as the young man snarled out,

"OF FUCKING COURSE I'M NOT OK SENSAI! I'm a fucking revenge obsessed alcoholic who had the only person outside of his family he loved nearly torn from him! I have twenty two Freya's right now that I'm chomping at the bit to launch but I'm holding myself back because my fiance wouldn't want me to do it for her sake, I'm ready to burn the world for what happened to her and I have the fucking _power_ to do just that! But I won't...I can't..." Tohdoh nodded as if to himself before he responded,

"Far be it from me to stop a man from avenging his loved ones, and I appreciate your restraint... but you threw down the gauntlet, and while you may have reservations if you do not show your resolve the momentum you have built will be lost." Looking at the monitor blankly Lelouch seemed to deflate as you fell back onto his bed,

"Who needs smacked down my sensai?," Tohdoh not wanting to deal with anymore emotional baggage simply stated,

"India and Portugal, there is a massive military crackdown on dissidents by the Eunuch's personal army outside New Delhi for having the audacity to demand clean water, and Lisbon is under siege by your brothers as they start their conquest of the E.U." Sighing in disgust Lelouch pulled himself out of the blankets that still smelled of Kallen and grabbed the great coat off its hanger, he had no desire to play Zero right now.

"OK...I'll wipe them out, I owe the Indians big time anyway, maybe I can make the Eunuch's blink with a hit to left field...," Tohdoh looked confused when he replied,

"I"m unfamiliar with this metaphor but I'm assuming you mean a sneak attack will unsettle them, and I agree, talk to your sister...and your brother, they'll both be as furious as you but less distracted, please Lelouch we're all betting on you don't throw it away now." Marinading in self loathing Lelouch kicked the empty liquor bottles out of his way as he stomped to the door,

"Right, no pressure, just gotta save the world from dear old dad...just make sure the kids are ready for the final curtain call sensai...talk to you later..."

"Lelouch." Stopping, he turned back to the general, "I had another reason to call you, we captured a little something the Britannians where transferring between islands, apparently they were using its computer to analyze some anomaly or another but the site became defunct a few days ago, I had it sent to your labs, I believe it will be a great asset on your path of vengeance." Staring in silence at the hardened soldier Lelouch nodded and left the room with a wave of his hand and an,

"Arigato Sensai."

_**Outside New Dehli, India June 6 2017 A.T.B.**_

General Chang was in good spirits, these damned brownskins had decided to riot over their treatment and were being routed like the animals they were, as he personally oversaw the execution of the last group of dissidents he walked over the children's corpses as he made his way back to the command center. He was in charge of the High Eunuch's personal guard, the 50,000 strong loyalist army which was involved with the unpopular suppression of vassal states, which unfortunately these goddamned Indians fell under, sighing as he tried to avoid the blood pools he shook his head in disgust, he muttered

"Another week, all that's needed, divide our forces and surround New Delhi and put it to the spear, be back in Beijing by next Saturday." He and his men were stuck in this hellhole because the last commander sent in hadn't had the stomach to move on the rioters, snarling in disgust he tried to force the image of that bleeding heart Xingake out of his mind. If that fool had his way their country would be led by an idealist _woman_, a child even, they needed to be strong and that's why they needed the Eunuch's. Grabbing a canteen he looked up into the sky as he took a long pull from the container, a bright flash then filled his vision, covering his eyes in pain the pink glare was the last thing he and his army ever saw.

_**Lisbon Bulwark, Portugal June 6 2017 A.T.B.**_

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was damn good at his job, he and the rest of his Prussian task force operated as the European Unions spear while de Gaulle's forces played the shield, it worked out marvelously on a normal basis, when they weren't facing two Britannia armies that is. Gritting his teeth the Desert Fox couldn't believe his shit luck, his task force had been caught between transfers while in Madrid and shipped out to Lisbon to reinforce the crumbling defenses against the dual assault of Castor and Pollux rui Britannia's task forces, the fiery redhead turned to his aid and grunted,

"Vat the hell is a mobile _land_ task force supposed to do to a damn armada? This is vat I ask!" Tossing his field glasses in disgust he closed his knighmare frame and started a systems check, the inevitable amphibious assault would be his Panzer Hummel's christening by fire. He continued to grumble in annoyance when there was a massive flash on the horizon, quickly switching on his factspheres he muttered, "Gott im Himmel." A pair of massive pink spheres formed off the cost consuming the entirety of the Britannian invasion fleets, grinning viciously as the hurricane force gale blew across his position Rommel simply muttered "I owe that beautiful Japanese son of a bitch a beer."

_**Black Knights Base, Command center**_

Unconsciously twirling a king piece Lelouch watched three separate armies burn, grimacing with unacknowledged tears streaking down his face he tapped a few keys to lock in on to his brother Septim gu Brittania's fleet heading towards Japan. Clicking the launch icon he quipped to no one in particular "So it would seem I should start introducing myself as the Seventh Imperial Prince after today, keep this up and I'll take over legally," his voice completely deadpan. Sighing Luluka said,

"Lelouch I love you, you know this right?" Turning to her in confusion he replied,

"Of course, where did this come from?" Taking a deep breath she grabbed his head touching her forehead to his, staring directly into his eyes she started shaking him,

"Stop. Acting. Like. A. BITCH! Do you honestly think Kallen wants you to be like this?! Do you honestly have the gall to claim that all this shit is your fault?! You WANTED to strike at these people but because you're sure Kallen wouldn't want it your pissing and moaning! This is war and this is what we set out to do, people get hurt and they die,its going to happen but goddammit shes ALIVE and you need to fucking move on!" Pulling away from her in rage he was about to snarl a reply when he just...stopped... He let out a small chuckle, then giggles, then a full on belly laugh, standing up strait he returned the gaze of his perplexed twin.

"God I've been an emo little bastard haven't I?" She smirked while nodding, groaning in frustration he sat down rubbing his face, speaking between his fingers he said, "Nearly losing her has made me realize something...we've gotta stop drinking all the time Lulu, people are noticing, its almost like our friends expect us to be drunk when they see us...I know we were hurt after the war but that excuse...I can't do it alone." Grimacing his sister sat next to him wrapping an arm around him,

"First off, wow subject shift, second off ...all right I'm not going cold turkey but I'll lighten up on it, for you." Lelouch snorted in response as he tapped an icon launching a missile at a fleet of transports over Alaska carrying his brother the Fifth Prince Bartholomew de Britannia to Japan.

"Leave it to you to negotiate chemical dependencies dear sister...I've gotta go apologize to Nunnally and Suzaku, they're probably suffering whiplash from my mood swings in the past 72 hours." Nodding in agreement she stood up and said,

"Good idea, lets go talk to them now they should be in the basement playing with our new ride, Tohdoh ganked us a two seater seventh gen frame, it is sexy as all get out." Lelouch recoiled from her eyes wide,

"I thought we agreed you're no longer allowed near much less inside a frame, not after the last wreck." Eyes narrowing in anger she hissed,

"I'll have you know I'm-" a lilting voice interrupted her with,

"A mediocre pilot that literally crashed a simulator into the wall...a _simulator," _glaring daggers at C.C. she chose to ignore the laughing witch, but Lelouch wasn't done.

"Or how about the time when Rakshata got us all our own customized Gloucesters and you somehow managed to stab through your own leg with the lance? Or the time you went joy riding in a one armed Glasgow in the ghetto and nearly ra-"

"OK OK OK OK! FUCK I GET IT! Urg...lets just go already," with that one grumbling and two laughing figures headed for the elevator.

_**Pendragon, Royal Imperial Palace, Throne Room**_

Charles zi Britannia was hungover_,_ this along with the previously being drunk had been new experiences for him, truth be told it might not be that bad if Schneizal would just shut it about what was going on in Japan, he _knew _already dammit, all too well. Stopping his rambling son Charles couldn't help but sound a bit...unprofessional as he asked,

"Wait wait wait... a masked man appears on television saying that he will strike down anyone pushing around the weak, proceeds to atomize a mountain and the army hiding in it, and four of my sons see this as a good time to move in large battle groups to push said weak around? That's what my blood did?" Schneizal simply nodded in response looking slightly concerned, "Well...natural selection at work...how many of these warheads have been launched in total?"

"Five today, perhaps six but I'm unsure if the blast in Mongolia is related, the blast radius was much larger and there were no witnesses," resisting the urge to snort Charles thought, 'No one alive anyway, dammit Lelouch...I need to commune with Marianne...hmm...actually...,' meeting Schneizal's eyes the Emperor replied,

"I want Gino, Anya and Dorothea sent to Area Eleven to recover the Knightmares you had manufactured for them, your pet project has devoured enough funding that they should be ready, after that I want them coordinating with Cornelia to figure out where these Black Knights are based at, they are not to move in on them until I have given my say so, now begone."

_**Stadtfeld Industries, Undergoing Repairs June 11, 2017 A.T.B.**_

"Aw, so he nuked five armies in the name of vengeance for me, that's so sweet in an incredibly messed up way," Kallen said to Nunnally, the younger girl nodded as she helped her sister in law flip her desk back up.

"He was a total mess for a couple days there, we were all afraid he went off the deep end but Nii-san hopped back, so all good, Britannia's war machine has all but seized up with the attacks and the Chinese are actually pulling out of India, apparently the army we hit was like their super secret goon squad and its causing unrest back home. Also Rakshata did a happy dance when she found out, it was cute, oh and Tohdoh-sensai gave Lelouch and Luluka a seventh gen frame with giant death lasers, its super sweet." Kallen jerked to a stop staring at Nunnally wide-eyed,

"Honey...I thought we all made it very clear that Luluka is no longer allowed near, much less inside a knightmare." Nunnally just nodded sadly resisting the urge to shudder,

"I know nee-chan...I know."

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**I was afraid Luluka was becoming a Mary Sue so I decided to make her glaringly deficient in an important area, I think I could have some fun with that, also Lelouch's moping and drinking were getting on my nerves so I did something about it. This was rewritten twice, the first time around was just...so bad, hence why its not as long as normal, still not all that happy with it but it is what it is, there should be another chapter out this week and with any luck it won't be another rewrite special so it'll be double this length, anyway, hope you enjoyed.**


	21. Chapter 21

**This chapter contains alot of Lloyd because I fucking love Lloyd, that is all.**

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_**Ashford Acadamy _**June 20, 2017 A.T.B.**_**_

Luluka was drawn from her dreams by a steady breeze blowing in her face, cracking her sleep encrusted amethyst eyes she found herself staring at C.C.'s angelic face, well angelic when she was sleeping anyway. Sighing in exasperation she realized she was being held tightly, lifting the covers to confirm her suspicions she saw that they were both naked, rolling her eyes she wormed her way from the witch's grip and sat up. 'Seriously, one day I'm going to figure out how the fuck she gets my clothes off without waking me up', she heard a stutter in her thoughts when her brother said,

'The fuck?' ah, broadcasted that, whoops, sighing she threw a loose dress shirt on as she dug up a smoke and lit it with her mothers lighter,

'The damn green haired succubus keeps trying to make shit uncomfortable for me, if I were an observer rather then the recipient I'd find it hilarious, as it stands I wanna kill her.' Chuckling over their link he simply replied,

'Better you then me, my love life has enough issues, have fun by the way I'm preparing some mischief for you!' Groaning out loud at that she woke up the limette in question, she sat up letting the blankets fall freeing her breasts as she rubbed her eyes, groaning she muttered,

"Mornin," staring back at the immortal Luluka grunted in response, this just caused C.C. to smile. "You really are quite unflappable aren't you? And here I heard along the grapevine you've done all sorts of naughty things with little miss Ashford." Snorting Luluka took a drag from her cigarette,

"Yeah thing with that is I was completely shitfaced and Millicent has absolutely no compunctions against taking advantage." C.C. merely smiled at this and replied,

"What, so every other Tuesday?" Coughing on her smoke as she tried not to laugh Luluka turned to the bedroom door as it opened and Suzaku walked in,

"Hey Luluka Lelouch said you wanted to talk to...me...uh..." He stared at the mostly undressed brunette with the smoldering cigarette hanging from her mouth and the naked witch in her bed, sighing Luluka thought out

'Well played asshole, well played.'

_**Ashford Acadamy**_

Suzaku stormed out of Luluka's room face beet red, Lelouch casually looked up from his crossword puzzle and asked, "Whats wrong brother?" The boy in question hurridily walked away and muttered,

"I'll be in my bunk," Chuckling to himself in victory he thought out 'Luluka 153, Lelouch 154.'

_**Stadtfeld Industries**_

"Because it isn't bloody finished, that's why," Lloyd Asplund said for what he counted as the third time, the Knight of the Round in front of him remaining stone faced as she made yet more demands.

"I was sent by the Emperor himself to take possession of our personal Knightmare Frames, the fact you are resisting could be misconstrued as treason," Lloyd allowed his glasses to slide down his nose so he could look at her incredulously over them,

"Indeed? You do realize Percival underwent a massive redesign when you appropriated it, most of the modifications are unfinished, Mordred's main guns spray around like a limp garden hose and the Tristan does less flying and more falling over and wiggling about?" Glowering at the smirking man Dorothea was about to put some fear in the smug scientist when she heard the office door open behind her,

" 'Ello Lloyd, I had my test pilot play in your Vincent sims last night so I have more data for you, also Nunnally made you a bowl tapioca and...oh hello who might you be miss?" Turning around the knight saw a young red haired woman wearing a mechanics jumpsuit holding a bowl in one hand and a stack of disks in the other. Glaring at the mechanic Dorothea sneered,

"It doesn't matter who I am my business is my own, how dare you question me so openly?" Eyes widening slightly the woman handed the delighted Earl the bowl and disks while placing a hand on her hip, she just stared at the knight for several long moments then turned to the now preoccupied scientist.

"The hell is this Earl?" Face lighting in rage she was about to respond when Lloyd casually waved his hand,

"Oh no one important Duchess, some Knight of the Round or another, they die so wearily often I don't even bother remembering their names anymore, she is insisting on taking the three new units out to sortie," before she could respond to his taunt her brain finally clung onto the words "Earl" and "Duchess", cheeks heating and eyes widening she watched the young womans nod of 'Yes indeed you did just mouth off to a pair of high nobles".

"Miss whoeverthefuck, Knight of the round or not I truly don't care what authority you have, this is my company, my building, my factory floor and until I get paid in full _my _knightmares, these things are only 65% complete because you lot twisted Prince Schneizal's arm to have them customized to your liking," At this Lloyd spoke up,

"Which meant I basically had to scrap more then half of what I had already built since they were just going to be a trio of Lancelots...pity but the parts do look nice on the Viceroys Vincents." Speaking as if she hadn't been interrupted the Duchess continued,

"So here is the deal, you want to take these, fine, but you're signing waivers in triplicate and they'll be notarized immediately and they'll be sent to the Prince with the full knowledge that I think this is a terrible idea," Lloyd popped in again with a

"I also happen to be a notary," Staring in shock at the pair she numbly signed the papers Lloyd handed her, when she was done he pulled out a small press that fixed a seal to the document, he then fed it into a fax machine.

"Well, all done, here are the keys to your coffins, Duchess would you like to come along with me and find Cecile? We'll start production of the replacement units immediately and I know you enjoy adding input to our creations." Nodding to the eccentric scientist she hooked her arm through his as they left the confused Knight of Four behind,

"Lets just hope she didn't corner the test pilots with her cooking again, I had to give them sick leave for a week last time," Lloyd shuddered slightly and simply replied,

"Better them then us.", as they turned the corner Lloyd let out a small chuckle, "You do realize she technically outranks both of us right?" laughing in return Kallen nodded,

"And she'll probably remember that later, so which one will fall apart first?" Smiling affably he said,

"Oh they're totally screwed I give the Mordred an 80% chance its Stark Hadron will explode, the Tristan a 95% chance that it will crash in the first two minutes and 50/50 odds that the Percival will autoeject her when she boots it up, its Yggdrasil drive is finicky." Shaking her head ruefully as the eccentric hummed to himself they entered the factory floor, the mad scientist looked at the rows of new units sighing. "And to think the Prince and Princesses will be destroying all these marvelous toys so soon after helping finish them," Kallen went rigid as he continued "really it breaks my heart a bit." Staring wide-eyed at the bespectacled man he returned her gaze with a smile.

"Of course I figured it out my dear, I was after all at court when the Prince was sent to Japan, I must say for such bright young ones using all their first names as aliases was quite foolish of them, on the other hand we are talking about Clovis here, the threat was probably negligible."

Stuttering Kallen managed to get out "How...how long have you known?" Looking bemused as he shrugged nonchalantly,

"Since the first day we got here, Luluka is a spitting image of her mother, her disguise fooled me in the trailer but well," grinning again while pushing up his glasses "I am after all a mad genius, don't worry young one my loyalty is to science, and so long as I can play with the marvelous toys you have here I have no intention of saying anything, after all who would need a weapons designer if there wasn't an arms race?" He said this last bit with a wide grin and closed eyes, Kallen reassessed the man, yeah Luluka was right, they should probably try to keep him.

_**Imperial Palace Throne Room, Emperor's Personal Office**_

'Where have you been my love?' His wife's response was weak but perceptible,

'The World of C is in chaos, the Thought Elevator bled some of that explosion through before it was vaporized, its thrown everything in disarray, probably what disintegrated the Sword of Akasha as well. I hate to say it dear but the plan is defunct, I'll admit I miscalculated when I suggested we give up the Directorate's location.' He snorted at that,

'Dear, lets be honest did you really expect our children to have access to...whatever the hell these things are? We both suspected they'd try an infiltration or an all out assault, just enough to rattle my brother...this? They went right for the throat.' He heard the faintest of sighs,

'I'm...actually rather proud of those three, they were left with nothing, alone, injured, being constantly hunted, now they're in control of a organization that's able to stand toe to toe with the greatest armies in the world and manage to keep the moral high ground...Charles?'

'Hmm?' She hesitated for a moment,

'If the plan is defunct we've got to rewire the way the country is run, we kind of left it a mess on purpose and if we can't kill god well...its all we have. I...I think we should start arranging your fall...and eliminating all threats to the throne' Sighing while rubbing his eyes he asked

'Who do you suggest? Who do we arrange to take my place?'

'I think that's pretty obvious love, he's already been put in a position of power, his leadership skills have been tested for years and he already has an Empress in waiting, all we need to do is make sure his sisters stay safe and he'll make his way to the top on his own.' Laughing a bit she added, 'Or we can completely and utterly fuck with his head and publicly announce he is alive and the new crown prince.' With that Charles burst out laughing, now that could be interesting.

**_Black Knights Base _**June 22, 2017 A.T.B.**__**

As Mozart's Requiem washed across Lelouch's auditory nerves he received a priority signal, attempting to ignore it for a solid minute he sighed in exasperation as he shut down the music and accepted the call, the vidscreen lit up with the image of Li Xingake. Sighing he snuffed out his cigarette and slapped his fucking mask on, twirling his chair he stared at the Chinese General for a moment then decided to give the finger to pleasantries. "What" Lelouch asked, the General for his part didn't register the rudeness, he simply stated, "I have a deal for you Zero." Groping his sealed brain in frustration Lelouch sat up and addressed the man,

"Yes, and what is that General?" The older man glowered at him for a moment before sighing,

"You give me a method in which I can defeat the Eunuch's and free China and I give you information as to when they plan to invade Japan." Cocking his head to the side Lelouch gazed at the stern faced man...'You know what, fuck it', "Tell you what General, I'll gift you a flight enabled seventh generation Knightmare frame for this info." He stared at him suspsiciously before asking,

"How can I believe you'll keep your word?" With that Lelouch broke out laughing and simply stated, "You can't but one of us has to give." Again staring at the masked man Xingke sighed and said "You'll be invaded two days from now, they quadrupled the size of the force and put their special enforcement army in charge of it, do China a favor and kill the lot of them." Breaking out in a cackle Lelouch stared at the screen snapping his fingers,

"Three days from now, Shanghai harber dock 176, you'll find the Shen hu fully charged and flight ready, I look forward to fighting beside you in the near future general."


	22. Chapter 22-Everything has changed

**Its absolutely amazing the amount of treason you can get away with when you've memorized every ancient law on the books- Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia**

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_**Black Knights Base June 21, 2017 A.T.B.**_

Bridging his fingers while leaning back in his chair Lelouch sat in companionable silence with Suzaku as they waited for Luluka to arrive, he'd been going over this operation with his brother for the better part of an hour and now that they had the rough plan it was time to finalize. Right on queue his twin entered the room with a beer in hand, downing the bottle she sat down across from Lelouch smiling sheepishly,

"Hey sorry forgot about the promise, err..." Waving off her drinking he tapped the map bringing up a satellite photo in the table wide monitor.

"Ok, here's the deal, ever since Lloyd let us know he was aware of our identities he has become...chatty as it were, in passing he mentioned to Nunnally that we may want to check in on Schneizal's activities in Cambodia."

At that Luluka cocked her head to the side in confusion, "Cambodia? That country is unaffiliated with Brittania." Grinning Lelouch nodded in agreement,

"Exactly, apparently all the new inventions Lloyd has been designing have slowly been integrated into Schneizal's flagship, the Avalon, here's the thing we found out from Lloyd, the Avalon's not three years old, its six, Schneizal sat on the tech that long. Lloyd says that its nothing more then a testbed platform for something bigger and the reason he's always been on a budget is because this thing has sucked down _billions_, that's where you two come in." Tapping a few keys it zoomed onto a forest with with some sort of structure looming high in the air.

"The hell is that thing? Its fucking enormous," Luluka asked, sighing Lelouch picked up his favorite king piece and started twirling it,

"I have no idea, he commissioned the Toromo Agency to construct it five years ago, according to Lloyd whatever it is, weapon system, fortress, what have you its been done for six months, its just sitting there. He's not even supposed to know about it but Schneizal goofed when he sent Lloyd the Gawain, long made short they used the Druid system to calibrate the solar collectors on it and forgot to wipe its harddrives."

Luluka burst out laughing at this, "Are you telling me we stumbled on some nefarious plot because our brother forgot to clear his porn from his internet history and we befriended a nosy mad scientist?"

Responding in kind Suzaku grinned back, "Yuuup, you're going to love the next part, you and me are going on vacation." Bringing up a 3D model of the Lancelot equipped with a FLOAT system Lelouch gestured at the monitor,

"When Rakshata broke the Lancelot down she installed gefjun shielding in its core, so you two are going to ride it to Cambodia with a gefjun disturber running and a shitton of spare energy fillers, you're to either infiltrate the facility or blow it up with a Freyja."

Looking pensive she asked "Wait why the both of us, and what about the Chinese invasion tomorrow? I mean shouldn't we be here for that?" Smiling Lelouch shook his head in the negative,

"No see here's the issue, if you guys can get into that place Suzaku can cast illusions to hide your presence and you can worm your way into whatever computer systems the place has and you can figure out what the hell is going on there. As for the battle, I've activated the Trojan Contingency, all hands on deck, nearly all pilots who can handle it have had their Knightmares equipped with FLOAT systems. Twenty of our airships are completed including all six Ikaruga class carriers, they're currently enroute to load up our best pilots, when the battle starts in earnest we'll deploy them enmasse."

Nodding to herself Luluka gave him a wan smile, "I'd have liked to have been here but I'm guessing the other reason I'm being sent is the world will be watching you guys, not whatever goes off in Cambodia."

Suzaku grunted an affirmation as he fidgeted in his seat, "As much as I want to be here to fight this is our best opportunity, we leave in a two hours so get your infiltration gear together and I'll have a crash seat thrown into the Lancelot for you." All standing Lelouch wished them luck as he went to go prepare for the coming "liberators" arrival.

_**Viceroy Palace Two hours later**_

Hearing a tentative knock on her door Cornelia looked up from her desk as Euphemia let herself into the office, her pink haired charge crinkled her nose as she got a wiff of the room, "Oh my sister this place still reeks of paint."

Snorting Cornelia casually waved her hand, "Yes well our brother happened to have blown up the old one, so what can i do for you?" A pensive look crossed the younger girls face as she replied,

"Umm...there is someone here to see you and its really important," With that she stood aside and Nunnally walked in grinning, Cornelia returned her little sisters smile as she stood and gave the teen a hug.

"Nunnally dear its so good to see you again, I'm surprised you risked coming in here being in hiding and all," Nunnally just shook her hand in an ironic echo of Cornelia a moment earlier.

"Nah I'm not nearly as well known as nii-san and nee-chan, besides couldn't talk about this over the phone, we're totes getting invaded tomorrow." Placing a projector on her desk and asking Euphia to turn off the lights Nunnally flicked the device on showing a map of the main Japanese islands.

"So we're getting attacked by China, they've got some former internal minister or another from the Kururugi regime as a rallying flag, which is hilarious since he ran with his tail between his legs while the rest of us fought, coward." Cornelia nodded in agreement watching her sister with appraising eyes,

"Where did you get this information from little one?" Nunnally broke out into a fit of giggles then went back to her ever present smile,

"From the general who planned the attack, Li Xingake, he bartered the info for a seventh gen frame and a Freyja strike, we got off cheap we've been able to mobilize our fleet assets and collect our cells into army units, they're attacking three cities at once, the port city of Osaka, the military facilities on Okinawa, and Tokyo proper, they are also dumping a Knightmare frame force over 1,000 strong on Kyushu, that's not good. What is good is that reinforcements are not a possibility because we're going to drop a fucking nuke on anyone stupid enough to cross the sea of Japan, we'd have done it already but we just found out about this a few hours ago and setting the limiter on the blast is kind of an art."

Staring at her sister wide eyed she thought 'Holy shit...that is so Lady Marianne's daughter', turning back to the map Cornelia nodded a battle plan forming in her, mind, turning to the smiling girl she asked,

"I'm assuming I can count on the Black Knights assistance?" Pouting a bit the girl muttered,

"I'm telling you this for a reason onee-chan..." taking a datastick from her pocket she handed it to her elder sister, "This is our IFF codes, upload them to your units, we'll activate them when we're ready to join forces, also there is a program on there to broadcast on open channels, a gift from Kallen. She says to use it when you're in dire need and you're ready to charge into a counter attack, the effect will only last thirty seconds so be sure you're ready." Staring down at the stick she looked into Nunnallys violet eyes,

"Whats it do?" The slasher grin her fallen enemies thankfully never got to see flashed across her face,

"Oh you'll find out, and it will be hilarious, take care dear sisters I have to make sure my Valkyrie Mk II is up and running, kinda wore the old one out, damn prototypes, Imma go get a pizza too, toodles!" With that she hugged her sisters and left, Euphemia gave her elder a sad look,

"That poor girl isn't all there," Nodding gravely Cornelia agreed, sighing she sat down in her chair to give orders,

"No she's not, and woe to anyone who crosses those she cares about, she's basically Lady Marianne without the safety...do your best to never make her angry, now please call for Darlton and Guilford, we have much to discuss."

_**Area 11, June 22 2017 A.T.B.**_

The attack started at dawn, the Kyushu landing force whose only goal was to raze the island never made it past the launching point, Cornelia realizing she couldn't waste ground assets had the entirety of her submarine force anchor off the coast to torpedo the amphibious carriers before they could launch a single landing craft. This unfortunately was the only good news, Osaka was practically overrun within an hour and Okinawa only held on by the skin of its teeth. Thankfully the AT rocket totting Royal Marines stationed there were insane and the Chinese Gun-ru's had ridiculously substandard maneuverability and armor, the invaders soon learned to avoid any group of infantry charging _towards_ their war machines.

Tokyo was the meat grinder that Lelouch was hoping his sister hadn't had to be in, the Chinese were basically burning the ghetto's down in an attempt to destroy potential hiding places and Cornelia had made the controversial (to the Nobility anyway) decision to evacuate the Eleven population into the settlement proper. Sighing he looked back at the map,

"I'm gonna admit Ohgi, I really had no idea what Xingke meant when he said 'Four times the size', of the original invasion force, how many is that attacking? Goddamn near two thousand?" His chief of staff nodded while tapping away at his tablet,

"Yeah no kidding, the only thing going for our side is that they're...Gun-rus, but quantity has a quality of its own, as superior as the Britannians weapons are eventually they'll run out of power and bullets." Nodding Lelouch tapped a key connecting to his General,

"Tohdoh-Sensei, its time, open up on Okinawa, Inoue and Minami's battle groups are converging on Osaka...mmhmm... yes activating the IFF's now."

On the ground Cornelia was drenched in sweat the customized Vincent Lelouch's fiance had built for her nearly as strained as she was, as she tried to catch her breath another wave of Gun-ru's peeled around the corner, not hesitating she unfolded her forearm mounted armor penetrators and threw the shurikens at the first two frames. As they collapsed and exploded she scooped up her discarded VARIS rifle and sword, backing the caped violet unit up she snapped off five shots as she got into cover, two of them connecting and destroying their targets. Guilford rushed up to her his Vincent's left arm missing, 'shit there goes his shield then,' grunting she took his sword and jammed her rifle in his hand.

"Milady?" She didn't answer him at first making sure she had the power for this, eyeing the twenty units bombarding her position she simply ordered,

"Cover me my knight," and she bulldozed through the rubble on her right charging the surprised frames, firing her slash harkens above them into a building she flew into the air and managed to do a fair somersault landing in their midst, twirling her blades in a flourish four Gun-ru's fell dead before her. Realizing the threat in their midst the others turned to face when several shots from Guilford removed five more from the field, in less then a minute the two veterans wiped out the wave, breathing heavily from the exertion she let out a low chuckle that Guilford mirrored.

"Milady, as always elegant and insane, remind me to thank your siblings for giving Earl Asplund all their combat data...these machines are wonderful, even if they're just prototypes." Sighing an agreement she motioned for him to follow her,

"We need to return to the rally point, I'm almost out of energy and you need a new arm, how'd you lose it anyway that's not like you?" Snorting her most loyal Knight replied with a deadpan,

"A building fell on, you should have seen the other guys." As she was about to make a snarky comment she gasped out in horror, the southern bulwarks fell, the few men remaining being overrun by the tidal wave of armor.

"Fall back now we can't take them in this state, move!" As the rabbited from their position she came to the horrifying realization they her power was down to 7%, preparing to make her last stand she was shocked to see her radar monitor light up with friendlies...lots and lots of friendlies. There was a static laced garble across all channels when the opening strings of a orchestra piece started playing, confused Guilford asked,

"Is that Wagner?" Before she could respond the opening cacophony of 'Flight of the Valkyries' blared through her speakers, then green VARIS shots and smoky red hadron blasts fell from the sky annihilating the wave that had been about to overwhelm her. Staring in shock Guilford let out an eloquent "Holy shit," _Hundreds_ of Knightmares were falling from the sky, or rather flying down escorting enormous flying battleships, the source of the powerful attacks that had saved her life, as they stared numbly the recently stolen Gawain landed before them.

"Hello dear sister, Sir Guilford, I have a gift for you," her brother said as the massive machine knelt down and handed off a pair of energy fillers, "Make it back to your firebase, we'll handle it from here," standing he lifted into the air as he opened a comm line across all channels. "All forces present, we the Black Knights are here to assist in the defense of our homes, we have a seize-fire with the honorable Viceroy and are supplying all strained units with ammunition and energy fillers." Letting an audible growl pass his lips he snarled out "We won't quietly trade one cruel master for one even worst, do not give up for we will win the day, Nil Desperandum!"

And with that the clamshell cases of the Gawain's hadron cannons split and burned through the line of approaching Gun-ru's setting them ablaze, turning to the still stunned Princess Guilford stated,

"I take back what I said when we met him, he surpasses the Emperor," Cornelia numbly nodded in return.

_**Area 11 Firebase delta**_

Marika Soresi was terrified, her brown hair glued to her forehead with sweat, numb fingers trying to guide her knightmare to reload its VARIS rifle, she wasn't terrified due to the fighting no, she was terrified she'd die namelessly and pointlessly like her idiot brother. She'd loved Kewell, once, but the mans blatant racism had been difficult to deal with, mostly because it was _all_ he talked about, so what happens to him? He starts shit with a pair of Gloucasters piloted by "inferior" Elevens and gets himself killed without evening getting a shot off, nailed to the highway with a spear.

Finally getting the rifle loaded she snapped a few more shots off at the unending horde of Gun-ru's, gasping she barely brought her Vincents left hand up in time to activate its shield before the HEAT round smashed into it knocking her to ground. Growling in frustration she got her unit up just in time to see her last subordinate fall, the Sutherland falling apart as the cockpit block ejected into the building next to her killing the pilot instantly. Snarling in rage she stood up and snapped a half dozen shots dearly wishing her sword hadn't snapped in half an hour ago. Suddenly classical music started playing on her radio as hundreds of beams of light fell from the skies piercing the approaching frames, reaping dozens of them.

"Heyya lemme lend you a hand," A friendly sounding Britannian said, looking up she saw a black and silver knightmare _fly _towards her, the unfamiliar hunched frame landed before her drawing out an energy filler and a spare MVS, across its chest was the silver logo of the Black Knights, "Names Jet, guess we're battle buddies for now, here lemme get this for you. Too stunned to resist the newcomer pulled her near spent filler out with a clawed hand and inserted the new one while locking the sword to her sheath. "Sorry it took so long for us to get here, they had air support and well, damn things didn't wanna die, didn't catch yer name?"

"Err...Marika, Marika Soresi," the man on the other end sounded like he had a wide grin as he replied,

"Pretty name for what I can only guess is a pretty lady, so these blokes are trying to take our home away from us and yer topped off, wanna go teach them the errors of their ways?" Finally shaking off the shock she thought 'Fuck it' and pulled the new sword out with her right hand has she shifted the VARIS to her left,

"Yes, I'd actually love to do so."

The man cheerfully replied "Its a date then, lets go cause a ruckus."

_**Area 11, Viceroy Palace June 23 2017 A.T.B**_

Groaning in exhaustion Lelouch rubbed his face as Kallen showered, they'd fought through the night and even with Kallen's little surprise it had been a near thing, who knew she kept the diagnostic activation codes to every Yggdrasil drive she'd sold to China? Around midnight Cornelia had activated the "|-|4(|3D b17(|-|3$" (Hacked bitches) program and over half the enemy knightmares seized up for 30 seconds as their computers went into diagnostic mode, that night he found out Cornelia had a very maniacal cackle. Cell phone ringing Lelouch saw the caller and snapped it open,

"Whats up General? Oh? Ha! So they're running eh? Well as long as she is secured and you consider my suggestion..mmhmm... ok I'll relay the coordinates for their little convoy immediately...size? Ok that's fine what the limiter is set to already...mmkay goodbye and congratulations." As he hung up Kallen walked in the small towel doing nothing to hide her curves, no complaints here, turning to her fiance she asked,

"Who was that hon?" Grunting he threw his feet up on the table as he texted the crew of their Freyja sub the coordinates and hit send, 'we really need to name that damn thing' he thought to himself, glancing over to the redhead he replied.

"Xingke, apparently when we routed their invasion fleet he broadcasted a little conversation between the Eunuchs and Schneizal where they sold their nation out for noble titles, they talked about the Tianzi like she was a slab of meat and said some rather disparaging things about the common folk. Long short, riots, mayhem, loyalist army escorting them to fortress city, Freyja doing its thing, debts repaid." Laughing at the raven headed teens blase attitude over a revolution she stretched out across him giving him a generous view of her cleavage. "Yer a vile temptress you know this right?"

Laughing she smacked him lightly with a humored "Pervert," nodding in agreement with her assessment he sighed at a job well done and lifted the television remote, mostly news casts of the failed invasion showing Black Knight and Britannian forces fighting side by side, as he was lulling to sleep the emergency broadcast system activated, glancing up in interest the image of his father appeared on screen. Sitting upright he startled Kallen who sat up as well, cranking the volume he watched the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world speak.

"Britannia, long has it been assumed that I was waiting for an heir to prove themselves, to do something so audacious and memorable that it would earn I, Emperor Charles zi Britannia's respect, and long have I been unsatisfied with the showing. Groveling dogs, blood thirsty fools, simpering sycophants, scheming politicians, and those who disregarded the entire game as idiotic and refused to play, that latter group is the only one I have the vaguest of respects for."

Taking a breath the large man continued glaring at the camera, "It would appear that my glorious Empire would fall into the hands of someone unworthy, but recently I was informed of a delightful bit knowledge, my son, the only man I ever acknowledged as my true seed is alive, the only child I have had that defied me to my _face_ and then was left for dead survived.

"He survived traitorous elements of our own government attempting to assassinate him for nearly a decade while at the same time forming his own army in secret to strike back at me, developed terrible and grand weapons to claim his vengeance for being cast aside and burn what I have built to create what he considers to be a better world. And despite that when the greatest chance he ever had to strike a defining blow against the Empire appeared, he chose to defend all the people of that land, Brittanian and number alike with his own hands.

"My son, my one, true, son, you have proven yourself to be the cleverest, smartest, cruelest, and most noble of all your siblings, Zero, my son Lelouch vi Britannia, I name you my crown prince, the inheritor to my throne, it is time to come home." And with that the screen shifted back to the Britannian flag. Lelouch wasn't sure but he was fairly certain he was making a sound only dogs could hear. Before Kallen could say anything his phone rang, seeing who it was he scooped it up,

"Sister did you see what-"

"Yes brother I did, and I think you should take him up on it," stuttering and fumbling about getting very close to a freakout he asked,

"How the fuck is that a good idea?! We're blown, totally blown!"

His sister was quiet a moment then quietly said, "Umm...we kinda stole Schneizal's pet project." Stopping he quirked an eyebrow at her tone,

"What does that mean sister? Why would that mean I should go to Pendragon and get my ass thrown into a cell?!" There was a muffled sigh from the other side of the line when he heard Suzaku say,

"Lou...look out a west window and look up," perplexed Lelouch walked to a window with an equally confused Kallen following him, looking up he nearly dropped the phone,

"What in the literal fuck is that?" His sister started cackling like Cornelia had the night before,

"Our trump card dear brother, meet our new base, Damocles."

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**Author Note- Hear me out, I have a bit of an engineering background, only a couple semesters but enough to tell you it is complete and utter bullshit that Schneizal built Damocles in a year and some change, the goddamn thing is three _kilometers_ tall and a half kilometer wide, it takes half a decade to make a bloody aircraft carrier in the real world. So yeah, he'd been building it for awhile and had planned to use crude fission bombs, think fatman and little boy from WWII, but what was his is now theirs, if you guys want a chapter on Luluka and Suzaku's hijinks lemme know before Saturday and I'll write it. Also need to emphasize the Vincent prototypes are like the alpha versions, they're not as good as the ones in R2, they don't have needle blazer(weird weapons anyway) and instead have a pair of fold out anti-armor shurikans kinda like the Strike Daggers in Gundam seed had, just you know...useful. Also they don't have the double bladed staff yet just a single Lancelot style MVS. Anyway, review!**


	23. Chapter 22 12 What happens in Cambodia

**Limey goodness between my favorite OC and our resident tightass, I _might_ indulge in lemons if I was any good at this shit, right now I'm just trying to get over their teenage hormones, well _his_ hormones anyway, Luluka knows exactly what the fuck she wants, hope none of this offends ya'all just a harmless sidestory that doesn't add much. Remember this is a companion piece to the previous chapter so if this isn't your thing don't read it there's a reason I put it out seperatly rather then edit it in.**

**Edit-The chapter editing system on this site pisses me off, reposting for the sixth time, literally...ugh**

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_**Nearing Cambodia**_

As they sped across the Pacific Suzaku couldn't help but turn back and stare at the slumbering beauty behind him,clad in skin tight black armor she sat on what amounted to a stepping stool, arms and legs crossed, her eyes closed and a burnt out cigarette between her lips, "Most beautiful goddamn thing you've ever looked upon, coward". Doing his best to keep his inner demon under control the young man tried to control his hormones...he lost horribly, glancing back at the fount of feminine violence behind him he couldn't help but let the dark little part of him worm out and smirk, 'She is Shiva, destroyer and creator, and you're too stubborn to realize what she means to you'.

Before things got even more awkward in his head a beeping on his console woke the woman in question, tapping a few keys he saw they were approaching their target, the brunette stretched in a way that made Suzaku want to murder people and threw her arm around him glaring at the monitor.

"Sup yo, hmm, AA, SAM's and CIWS mostly, good thing we're cloaked or that'd tear our shit right apart, and would you look at that fuck'in compensator." Looking forward Suzaku saw the fortress they were supposed to infiltrate and couldn't help a small gasp to escaping his lips,

"Whoa...ummm...whoa..." Staring at the kilometers tall fortress Lululka just shook her head i disgust,

"Seriously man only someone _try'in_ to emulate my old man would build something like this, fuck...lets just find a good place to plant our nuke and move the fuck on." Ignoring the sex goddess wrapped around his neck Suzaku landed the Lancelot perfectly, opening his cockpit the raven haired demigoddess muttered "or not." Gritting his teeth he slipped his mask and helmet on and jumped off the chair landing in a crouch several meters down, Luluka followed down on the tether, "Show off, do that shit more often its sexy." Once _again_ ignoring said temptress Suzaku moved on, shouldering his battle rifle he took point heading towards the facility.

"We haven't been noticed, I need to emphasize a point, our flight system glows bright ass green and my frame is gloss silver and gold, we're either dealing with an understaffed facility or complete idiots." His adoptive sister...yes think of her like that...simply snorted as she motioned towards the door in front of them,

"Ya actually shocked? I know Schneizel, love him dearly but he's an arrogant fucker, more so then Lelouch could ever hope for, he's been in the clear for six years, security will be lax." Nodding Suzaku approached the open elevator and hit the only key on the panel. They stood there tensed as they headed up, turning to the Japanese man the woman who seemed to be emulating the goddamn Baroness at the moment asked, "Everything cool Suzu?" Deciding that he really didn't care at this point he glanced over to his friend,

"Other then the fact that you're turning me on so much right now that I'm willing to throw the whole mission to tear that suit off? Yeah everything is totally fucking cool." There was dead silence as the the elevator slowly...slowly headed up, starting to sweat slightly over his outburst he was about to turn and apologize when the black haired goddess knocked him over and straddled his waist, staring down at the Japanese man she shot down tearing the gasmask off and kissed him deeply, before long their lips parted and their tongues darted back and forth, after a solid minute of this they heard the elevator ding and the doors open. Luluka pulled back and stared down at her longtime friend before stating,

"I fully intend on fucking the hell out of you on the way home, if you die before then I'll be deeply, horrifically offended and may or may not go on a genocidal rampage." Breaking out laughing he cupped her chin and pulled her back down for one last kiss,

"All right, same goes to you, don't fuck this up ok?" Grinning the infiltrator hopped off his chest and slid the shotgun off her back motioning for him to follow while he could only stare at her ass. 'Shiva' he thought with a shiver, 'I'm in love with fucking Shiva', following his long time friend up the spiraling staircase they found themselves in a command center that if he were to be completely honest belonged in a goddamned bond movie, she fired three shots killing an equal number of of armed guards. Grabbing Suzaku by his belt she dragged him to the cowering scientists, glowering she pumped the empty shell from her scatter gun.

"Ok, one of ya is gonna stop being a goddamn pussy and tell me what the fuck this goddamn thing is." A blonde man stood and visibly pissed himself, Luluka looked like she was ready to shoot him right there but retrained herself as the man started to babble,

"Pri..prince Schneizle commissioned this fortress to be made years ago, the goal was to make a symbol for the world of hate to unify the people, un...unfortunately our research hit a snag and we were unable to produce sakuradite powered super weapons..." The pale faced little coward looked like he was choking on his own tongue, "We...we instead manufactured crude fission weapons, the Prince was unhappy with the end result and held back his plans until he found a better weapon." Glowering at the man Suzaku asked,

"How many people are on this...thing right now?" The scientist pissed himself again as he replied,

"Only the six of us, the projects been finished for months, he...here...here's all the access codes please don't' kill me!" Snarling in disgust Suzaku ordered the lot of them off the station. Luluka took the codes and inputted them into the computer, as the display's came alive she tapped through the the menu's as if she had been operating them her entire life. The station shuddered and lifted off its platform, heading to Japan. The lithe raven haired goddess, stood up strait and started removing her clothing.

"Ya know Suzu, been waiting for this for awhile now," turning to him only in her underwear she stalked her way towards him, like a huntress approaching her pray, 'And that's what you love, you don't want a docile lamb you want a she wolf that matches your rage'. The purple eyed beauty stared at him for a moment as her bra hit the floor,

"Yer wearing way too much Suzu, I'll give you ten seconds before I cut it off."


	24. Chapter 23

**Was the short story ok? I kinda feel like it steered a bit too far from the rest of the narrative, plus I didn't grammar check it... ugh I hate second guessing myself, oh as for the swearing level from Luluka I'd decided when I started this that Lelouch rarely swears, only when hes angry, or making a point, when Luluka's angry/agitated/hungry/horny she just starts swearing more while threatening bodily harm.**

**I'm taking this in a completely different direction then I'd originally intended because honestly this route seemed like way more fun, if at any point this starts seeming ridiculous let me know.**

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**Did we think the plan would actually work? Oh hell no, but we had to try, for all those that had been lost-Lord General Suzaku Kururugi**

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_**Damocles**_

Lelouch made his way through the cavernous halls of his new floating fortress followed closely by Nunnally and Euphemia who where giddily discussing how cool it was that their favorite brother would be Emperor and Cornelia who was giving him a bemused look obviously enjoying how discomfited he was with the situation.

"Bicycles," he muttered, "We're going to need to issue bloody bicycles to get people moved around in here, hells bells talk about compensation Schneizal..." That got a chuckle out of his three sisters as he kept grumbling about how impractical it all was. As the reached the command centers door he hit the key to open it, with a whoosh it slid into the wall showing off a vast room covered in computers while the entire floor was a screen displaying the ground below. Directly in the center was a throne on a pedestal, its current resident, one Suzaku Kururugi was currently enjoying having his hair tousled by one Luluka vi Britannia as she lay sprawled languidly across his lap.

Lulouch stared at the spectacle for a moment then put his hand over his face shaking his head, "You bloody shagged in our new Fortress of Doom didn't you? I swear you better have cleaned the damn floor." Shooting up startled they stared down at their brother sheepishly, he gazed at them unflinching while Euphemia blushed deeply, Cornelia rolled her eyes and Nunnally hopped up and down whispering how she had totally shipped them.

He sighed then asked, "Did you boink on that throne?"

Luluka let out a meek, "Err...not as of yet no," Nodding he motioned for them to move,

"Good move I need to make some phone calls," briskly walking past the couple he climbed the stairs and sat down, he pulled up the keyboard and started typing away at it, Suzaku looked around a bit confused when he finally asked,

"Umm...thats it, you have nothing to say about err...this?" Raising his head just long enough to make eye contact he then went back to his work,

"Suzaku, I've been trying to get you two idiots to admit your feelings for the better part of a year, the sexual tension was obnoxious and I didn't need the distraction, also you finally surrendering to your libido's happened in a timely manner since we no longer have to fake being blood relatives."

Looking a bit nonplussed by this Luluka asked, "Wait you've been trying to hook us up? Like when?" Sighing, fully realizing he was not in fact going to get any work done he decided he'd have to play twenty questions,

"Most recently? Forcing the two of you into a tight one seater cockpit for a flight over the pacific when I could have easily sent you in the Gawain, time before that arranging for Suzaku to walk in on you naked, time before that I arranged for you to walk in on _Suzaku_ naked, seriously you two are twits sometimes." At this there where three woman laughing hysterically, one blushing furiously and one man thinking he had one kickass brother inlaw.

Making a shooing motion he said, "Can I please get back to work now? I've gotta link up a whole helluva lot of people in a short amount of time." He had five minutes of relative quiet before the heard the door slide open, glancing up he smiled seeing Kallen walking towards them with Lloyd, Cecile, and Rakshata in tow, as they approached he heard Lloyd let out a furious,

"And I designed _that_ too, is there a system on this monstrosity that they didn't steal from one of us? " Rakshata for her part looked as surly as he did her favorite cigarette pipe dangling limply from her mouth,

"I wouldn't be so mad if they'd done it right, after all we've been piggybacking on each others work for years but this is just so...thrown together." Mildly shocked that the pair where being so civil he thought 'Well, nothing unites people quite like supreme outrage,' clearing his throat Lelouch spoke up.

"As you three probably noticed this place is umm...functional at best, I was wondering if you'd be willing to move your teams and some of your equipment up here and do a thorough diagnostic, and snoop around for any bugs and illicit broadcasting gear." All three scientists smiled and nodded, "I plan on heading to Pendragon in two days so by all means, go nuts." With that the trio turned around talking excitidly, Kallen walked up the ridiculous pedestal and sat on the thrones arm and tapped his hand for attention.

"You remember those Knights of the Round that showed up a few days ago? Yeah I had to bring them up here they wanted to talk to you, before you get angry they have supreme authority so I couldn't exactly say no if we're going to go through with your plan." Sighing in resignation he nodded his assent, she pulled out a phone and sent a text, giving her a look she frowned at him, "What? this place is enormous it'd take me ten minutes to get over there, seriously we're gonna need segway's or bikes or something."

_**Approaching the Dragons Den**_

Gino Weinberg walked beside his partner Anya Alstreim racking his brain in an attempt to figure out what in the hell he'd gotten himself into, pick up your Knightmare, find Zero, call the Emperor, go home. Simple, right... sadly his frame had barely been half finished when he received it and as it was now...ugh never mind, and as for finding Zero, well the Emperor found him, but he was still under orders, as he mulled these thoughts they entered the vast command center to Lelouch's redoubt.

Making his way across the ridiculously large enclosure he approached the throne in the center as Lelouch stared down at him imperiously, Gino had never felt so small as the violet eyes dissected and analyzed everything about him, as he began to shift uncomfortably the Crown Prince spoke up.

"Ostentatious isn't it? I swear if all this space could actually be used for something I'd understand it, alas that is not the case, so tell me how can I help you oh Knight of Three, and were is your stalwart companion the Knight of Four?" Wincing at that he was about to reply when Anya simply stated,

"Dead," and went back to playing on her phone, this got the rest of the groups attention, quirking an eyebrow Lelouch asked,

"Indeed, well that's unfortunate, oh...oh damn she didn't actually try to fly that damn Knightmare did she?" The prince said this groaning to himself, Kallen blanched a bit and Nunnally just held her head in her hands echoing her brother. Gino for his part could only stand there sheepishly nodding,

"She umm...she booted up the Percival and well...it exploded, blackbox said the drive was unstable and it had displayed it to her... she was always stubborn, anyway it kinda auto-ejected her into the Mordred...which then also exploded destroying the Tristan." The sound of seven hands hitting their respective foreheads at once resounded through the room, Kallen was heard muttering,

"Glad I got her to sign the bloody waivers, wonder if insurance will cover the costs," Lelouch looked to her sadly,

"Honey we own the insurance company too, we'd just be paying ourselves," With an exasperated "Bollocks" she hopped down from her perch so she could pace around the throne, Gino cleared his throat to reacquire the groups attention,

"Annnyway see here's the problem, I was ordered to find Zero and bring him to the Emperor, uh, the issue is you're Zero and you have an armada that could raze a continent so I can't rightly make you do anything, but since you're also now the Crown Prince I was wondering if we could just hitch a ride to Pendragon so we can you know...not get executed for not following orders?" Lelouch stared down at the young man then burst out laughing, wiping the tears from his eyes shaking his head he managed to get out,

"Hehe...oh man the shit we've all gotten ourselves in," at this Gino returned the smile as Lelouch continued, "Of course of you can come along, I'll even do you favor and have a couple flight equipped Vincent's painted up in your colors for you, they'll do till your new units are done." Surprised at the gesture Gino saluted and said,

"Thank you your highness, this kindness will not be forgotten," Lelouch frowned and shook a finger at him sternly,

"None of that formality crap if we're not in court, one of the greatest things about running your own personal army is you can tone down all the prancing bullshit, if you're sticking around just call me Lelouch." Grinning in reply Gino thought 'I could actually get along with this guy,' but said,

"Of course y-...Lelouch." Nodding and still smiling he dismissed to the two Knights, as the door closed behind them he noticed Anya smiling a bit, looking down in confusion he asked the petite teen, "Whats up Anya, yer not doing your generalized apathy thing." The girl in question turned to her partner giving him a full smile, for some reason her eyes looked slightly different,

"Its nothing Gino, I just think that for the first time in a long time the Empire is in good hands."

_**Damocles Control Room, on the cusp of tomorrow**_

The collected faces of his inner circle all stared at him from the massive wall monitor, all looking concerned, but excited, Lelouch replied to Tohdoh's query, with a casual twirl of his king piece,

"Yes sensai I already had the forces staying here in Japan do it, they didn't hesitate so I have no issues with the others doing it when we get to Pendragon, the law is very well worded, perfectly legally." Giving Lelouch a rare smirk Tohdoh shook his head slowly,

"You are as audacious and impressive as the day you recruited me my student, very well I'm for the plan and since the Viceroy has already agreed to it I'll be her second as you wished." Smiling Lelouch nodded as he turned to the screen displaying Kaguya Sumeragi,

"Xingke was not pleased when he found out my true identity but he's a man of his word and has agreed to you and Euphemia schooling Jiang Lihua on how to be a proper leader now that the Eunuch's are suffering a severe case of cumupence, I'm sending Jerry and Saoko with you as well as the air Carrier Enterprise, it will be staffed with both Black Knights and Britannian military," Kaguya smirked as she asked,

"Enterprise, really?" Lelouch sighed at this putting his king down,

"Saoko wanted to name it Macross, Jerry won the coin toss, please don't bring it up to them its a sore point and I don't need Jerry to end up in the dog house over it." Laughing Kaguya just smiled and nodded, Lelouch looked at the panels containing his various cell leaders and sighed, "Guys, thanks for sticking with me through this, I know I can be a bit of a bastard but thanks, Inoue as we discussed I'm bringing your cell and Minami's since they're the most burnt out from our brief little war, on the plus side you guys get all new Gekka's." She grinned happily at that,

"Oh nice I hate those Sutherlands, sure they're better then Burai's but they sacrifice alot of speed for armor," Nodding at this he added,

"As per my sisters request I'm bringing a squad of her best as well, she doesn't trust the Emperor and wants as many loyal people around me as possible, apparantly doing my best not to kill any of her forces over the past two months paid off, they practically worship me, which is weird lemme tell you. Ok folks you all know the plan so here is to a better tomorrow," With several goodbyes said at once the screens shut down and Lelouch slouched down in the ridiculous throne.

As he sat there C.C. made her way up the stairs and gently sat on his lap, cupping his face she just stared at him, after a moment she smiled and kissed his forehead,

"You are the strongest willed man I've ever met, you're doing fine and you'll see to the reforms you want so much, I can't believe I'm saying this but I truly have faith in you." Smiling wanly he pulled her hand from his face and squeezed it gently as he rested his head on her shoulder, blushing lightly she wrapped an arm around him and stroked his hair, he let out a slight chuckle.

"This is where Kallen walks in and completely misunderstands a tender moment between friends and we have to spend a week straitening it out." She burst out laughing at that even though she felt a sting at the word 'friends',

"Indeed, well my warlock what can your witch do for you?" Smiling sadly head still resting on her he sighed,

"I have no idea if what I'm doing is right, as of a day ago I was planning on uniting the E.U. and China and declaring unilateral war on Britannia...as of today? Hell you heard it all, I'm treading water trying to figure out which direction the shore is." Sighing he tapped a few keys priming the massive fortresses engines, when the ready confirmation from the last department pinged he activated the autopilot. Straiting out they both watched the massive floor length monitor as they started raising into the upper atmosphere, flicking a switch the domed ceiling's monitors displayed the star speckled skies.

"That's where we're going after all this though my witch, when all this petty infighting is done, when I bring the rest of the world up to Britannian standards, I will use all these horrible weapons of war to create wondrous works of science, get us off this rock and break gravities shackles." She looked down from the starscape and watched the childlike wonder spread across the Emperor to be's face, thinking inwardly 'Nothing can every happen to this boy, the world relies on it.'

_**Pendragon, Calling out the old man**_

Schneizal was depressed about something, Charles didn't know what but it pleased him immensely, its not like he disliked the boy for anything particular he was just such a...politician, yes that was it, he was a schemer. So was Charles for that matter, as well as Lelouch his chosen favorite, but both of them had bloodied their hands, they had done the deeds themselves, not by manipulating a catspaw. Getting the signal from Marianne that they were approaching he activated the large monitor before him, resting his interlocked hands against his chin he watched the direction his son was supposed to be coming from. After awhile a spot was seen from the sky, it slowly became larger and...larger, having to pan the camera's zoom back he realized he was staring at a floating fortress falling from the heavens, Schneizal stiffened upon seeing this and Charles couldn't help but smirk, 'Ah, so your brother pulled another one on you did he? Heh, good lad.' As the fortress settled above Pendragon nearly two dozen massive warships slipped from her docks making their way to the city below, a moment later dozens of flying Knightmares swarmed from the ships. The sky looking as if it was thick with flocks of ravens, Charles bellowed out a laugh,

"That boy built up all this?! This when he was left for dead with nothing but the shirt on his back and the rage in his heart?! HAHAHA! He truly is my son!" With that Schneizal stared cold hatred towards his father, as the Knightmares formed up in ranks they escorted four frames down to the courtyard, every unit was painted black and silver with the impaled geass symbol emblazoned on their chests. As one the hunchbacked frames he did not recognize and the Vincents all landed in opposing lines leading to the palace, they then readied heavy lances and tented them over the path. The four frames, all dangerous looking landed, and five figures disembarked, walking shoulder to shoulder they passed under the shield of their honor guard. Smiling Charles stood and walked towards the throne room Schneizal fast on his heels, sitting on the throne he had to school he features before the camera's turned on. The courtier then bellowed out,

"Now announcing Crown Prince Lelouch vi Britannia, Princess Luluka vi Britannia, Princess Nunnally vi Britannia, and..uh...oh my General Suzaku Kururugi, and.. Princess Consort Kallen Vi Britannia." Raising an eyebrow at that last bit he watched the massive doors swing open, at one end of the line was his daughter Nunnally, she was grinning at the assembled nobles, her half caped black uniform doing nothing to hide the dozens of knives she had on her body. Next to her stood a redhead in a similar fitted uniform, a pair of swords hanging from her hips, on the other end a Japanese boy in a slightly more intricate outfit with a Katana at his side, on his right was his daughter Luluka peering over a pair of glasses smirking at the assembled nobles. 'Good god she looks just like my Marianne' he thought, heart wrenching slightly, in the middle striding towards his father was Lelouch, hair greased back wearing a dress uniform hands in his pockets and a massive great coat hanging from his shoulders, he stared strait at Charles through a pair of glasses, a cigarette smoking from the corner of his mouth, smirking.

The five of them walked past the gathered nobility mirroring the looks that had been given to their brother seven years ago, complete contempt, hostility, and amusement, these young people were fighters, killers, leaders, revolutionaries, these old fossil's mattered not to them, Charles was...proud, they were strong, the strongest in fact. Perhaps Ragnarok hadn't been necessary...as this thought rolled through his mind the group stopped at the foot of the stairs. He stared down at them for a moment before he said,

"Lelouch," his son stared at him then spat his cigarette out rubbing it with the toe of his combat boot,

"Charles," with that they stared each other down, Schneizal shifted unsteadily but none of the warriors before him so much as flinched, if anything they looked excited, like they were waiting for a reason to let loose on the onlookers...which in all honestly they just might be willing to do. Lelouch sighed pulling another cigarette out and lit it with a silver lighter that Charles could just barely read 'For Marianne' on the lid, eyes tightening in remorse he spoke,

"Its been many years Lelouch, I see you have grown strong," the man in front of him snorted as he impudently blew a cloud of smoke towards the throne, 'So like your mother' he thought wistfully.

"Stronger then you old man, but really that isn't why I'm here, I've committed fratricide with a smile on my face, I've slaughtered your armies, stolen your weapons, heh...made them better even, and all the while with no greater desire then to see your bleeding head on a pike. So the question, "FATHER" is why after seven years of attempting to murder my family and myself to justify your bullshit invasion of Japan you've decided that I'm to be your heir." With that revelation there was dozens of gasps across the room at the young man, he snorted and tossed a sheaf of papers on the floor, "Don't believe me? Here's the written orders from everyone of the bastards I killed."

"Goddamn you V.V." Charles muttered staring at the papers, looking up and speaking loud enough to be heard, "Lelouch, the past is the past, you...you're different from your siblings, in more ways then you can comprehend." His son raised an appraising eyebrow that said "I'm listening," taking a breath he continued "You didn't do what your siblings did, you did not attempt to find a sword to fight with, or to buy or steal it from others, no... No you did something different, you weakened as you were gathered others that were weak as well, gathered them like small fragments of iron ore, you then smelted them into steel with your own hands and FORGED THEM INTO YOUR OWN BLADE OF DESTINY!" Roaring the last part Charles stood abruptly and he was vastly pleased to see only the nobility flinch, the soldiers before him looked unimpressed.

"In the end Lelouch, out of all my children, you, YOU forged your own path, you never gave up, you never surrendered, and you fought tooth and nail the entire way, while you may despise my views on the strong and the weak you're the prime example of its truth, you were never weak, you were the strongest of them all and now they cower before you." Lelouch stared at the Emperor for a long moment before he grinned the cigarette falling from his lips,

"As they goddamned well better get used to...father." For the first time in his entire life there was no venom in the title.

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**I'll probably have another chapter tonight or tomorrow, this just wrote itself I'm having so much fun**


	25. Chapter 24

**The thing about the Lamperouge's, or rather the vi Britannia's you need to consider is that they never took the world seriously, they had their own ideals and views on how things were supposed to play out and the fact the world resisted them was nothing more then an annoyance, they put up with my shenanigans because they loved me, when the E.U. resisted their reforms the hammer truly fell-Duchess Millicent Ashford 2025 A.T.B. **

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_**Holy Britannian Empire, Pendragon Throne Room**_

As the nobility disembarked Lelouch stared at his father, amused by the fact he felt no animosity towards the man at the moment, shrugging he walked up the stairs and stopped in front of the Emperor, then he saw Shneizal staring daggers of hatred at him, deciding to nip this in the bud he cast his geass and said,

"You will not work againt me or mine, you will live your life as you would have otherwise," with that his brother tensed, then relaxed and said,

"Ok," turning back to his father he smiled lightly,

"I truly love doing that every now and then, especially when I know they'd have been a problem otherwise." His father barked out a laugh as he as assessed the raven haired teen before him, shaking his head ruefully he ordered Schneizal to leave, geass or no the man resisted a moment before walking off.

"I'd watch that one, if someones will is strong enough even a geass cannot contain them," Charles warned his heir, Lelouch snorted as he lit yet another cigarette, rolling his eyes he stared back at his father.

"How do you think Nunnally can see? We figured it out awhile ago, your Geass told her she was blind but her own steel will said 'No, I can see' and so she does, I anticipate Schneizal doing something, probably with the aid of my uncle, don't look surprised C.C. got quite chatty with us after we nuked that thought elevator." Breathing in a drag and letting its smoke cloud hover between them Lelouch grinned, "The thing is I get what you were shooting for with Ragnarok, I disagree with it on principle because your route would lead to stagnation, but I get it." Walking to his father he leaned up against the throne staring down at the man, "that being said that route isn't available anymore, so I'm assuming that's why I'm here." Sighing Charles nodded,

"Yes, the World of C is in turmoil, it may settle soon or it may not, but as things stand my grand plan cannot be pursued, so I needed to choose someone, a visionary to take my place. I found out Schneizal's plan to unite the world with a symbol of fear awhile ago, it was stupid, just, but stupid. Human's don't like being told what to do but you're method worked hilariously well, 'Don't be an aggressive dick, you don't get nuked', simple, but to the point, and you showed that when the hammer wasn't applicable you'd use the scalpel." Grinning up at the violet eyed teen he simply said, "son, you are the most impressive of my children, all three of you are leagues above your peers, and without the plan I must acknowledge this to save what I can."

Snorting Lelouch put the cigarette out on his left hand, shrugging the jacket off that shoulder he showed off the bare metal limb,

"See this dad? I got this the day a Britannian bomber attempted to murder my family, I fought three weeks through wartorn Japan with a rotting stump for an arm while protecting my dependents, believe it or not a pissed off Knight and five little kids isn't an impressive force, but we slaughtered dozens of soldiers with nothing more then melee weapons. You know the last time I felt fear, honest to the old gods fear? When idiot terrorists hurt my wife, that had been the first time in seven years I felt that pain. I'm not better then my peers father, I've just contained my weaknesses in four human beings."

Staring in shock at the metal limb Charles remained silent, Lelouch shrugged his arms through the sleeves of the jacket while continuing, "I have no intention of ever creating another me, I wake up every night crying, the rare nights I don't my wife wakes me reliving Britannian soldiers attempting to execute her after slaughtering her family, I drink too much and I smoke to remind myself of my mother even though it'll eventually kill me. I'm not all there dad, I'm not this font of strength you think I am, all that's there is a furious little boy who wants justice for the death of his mom and the injuries his sisters took."

Walking away from the throne he finished the conversation with, "I know that you don't really believe in that social Darwinism crap, C.C. made that clear but the problem is it turned out true, the five of us together are stronger then everyone else and we have legions that believe in us, I'll bring this world to heel and make them see enlightenment even if it kills some of them, because you see all men are not created equally, and when the strong are confronted by the weak, they'll snap back until the sword forged by the oppressed strikes them down."

_**Damocles**_

With his inheritance confirmed and broadcasted across the world Lelouch and his siblings flew back to their fortress under the guard of 96 Gekka's and Vincents, a full eight squadrons of men and women willing to die for their charges, it made his heart ache thinking about it. Landing he disembarked from the Lancelot and followed his family as they made their way for the main cargo hold where the entirety of the Black Knight force that followed them to Pendragon was waiting.

On the far wall was a massive black tapestry with the Black Knights sigil emblazoned in silver in the center, after some debate they'd decided Lelouch's first bit of Zero latin should be the company motto so 'Nemo Me Impune Lacessit' was scrawled below it. Suzaku looked at the collecting forces with a smirk, dozens of Knightmares where lining along the walls while the troops gathered in the center forming ranks, it was...impressive, quite impressive. His brothers plan was hilariously simple and it shocked him no one had considered it but as he had said before, Britannia was stagnating, standing on the stage he grabbed Luluka by the waist and watched the gathering forces smiling.

"Ya know a lady may take offense to such forwardness," She drawled out, looking down at the violet eyed warrior he smirked at her,

"Dear, you're many, many wonderful things, but a lady? Yeah I don't think so," laughing at this she smacked him lightly while she leaned into his embrace. Nunnally and Kallen approached the couple and stood beside them, glancing over the Duchess shook her head at the pair,

"Seriously, about damn time, Nunnally we need to hook you up with someone," The brunette flushed a tiny bit at this and muttered something about being focused on the mission, laughing a bit Kallen just hugged her in understanding. As the massive room filled with soldiers none of them could quite grasp the enormity of what they'd accomplished, most of the troops had their masks off and a sea of mixed ethnicities faced the quartet. Grinning a bit Nunnally spoke for them all,

"If we've done nothing else, we've brought countries together under a just cause, no one can ever take that from us." They all returned the grin when Lelouch walked up to the stage still wearing his hapatic glasses with the Zero helmet in hand, he turned to them smiling as he clipped on a microphone,

"We all ready for this? I'm a bit nervous," They walked up to their brother and exchanged words of encouragement, feeling a bit better he sighed and put on his leader face, turning to the podium he waited for the room to quiet down, coughing a bit he made sure Ried was broadcasting this to the world, sighing he began what would one day be considered one of the most important speeches in human history.

"Citizen's of Britannia, I Crown Prince Lelouch vi Britannia greet you all as an equal, for what is a man but a sack of meat and blood? How is my genealogy greater then yours, quite simply put, it is not, but your faith has been placed upon me and I must endeavor to exceed expectations. I've held many titles over the years, the Black Prince, Nero, Oni, the purple eyed fairy " Laughing a bit at this one he shook his head and continued, "and most recently, Zero." With that he lifted the helm with the cracked lens, placing it on the podium he waited a moment before he continued.

Taking in a deep breath he finally let it out, "I...am a bastard, not of the conventional sort of course, but rather I'm one part revolutionary, a part prince, a part freedom fighter, a part commoner, a part nobleman, a part terrified maimed child left to die, I am a culmination of all that has been imposed upon me." With that he tossed the Zero helm aside, "I have been given the one thing all my plotting and scheming never granted, system wide authority, with the Emperor's blessing I now give these orders, _ALL_ areas are dissolved, they are to be made part of Britannia proper, their people will no longer be numbers but sons and daughters of her holy empire."

Sighing Lelouch continued, "This will be a painful transition, and I will admit that it will be difficult on all sides, former number and traditional Britannian alike, but it is what must be done if we're to put aside the past. To show this method will in fact work the former Area Eleven, now the Duchy of Japan has already entered co-governship between my sister Viceroy Cornelia li Britannia and my top general Kyoshiro Tohdoh, already they are rebuilding as equals, a symbol of co-operation. This of course leaves me in a conundrum, my personal army of the Black Knights is considered a terrorist organization by many, and legally speaking, it is, so I call upon the ancient laws of the Knights of Virtue."

Staring at his amassed soldiers the camera switched to an over the shoulder view of him observing the 10,000 men and women before him, grinning he pointed towards the crowd. "My soldiers, my followers, do you solemnly swear to uphold the rules of chivalry, honor and decency your prince sees fit?! Do you swear to uphold hope, trust, and truth!? Do you swear to follow your leader Lelouch vi Britannia to the very cusp of hell to defend the world from those that would throw it into chaos?! WHAT SAY YOU!?" As one unified body the thousands before him thumped their right fists against their hearts and said,

"WE SO SOLEMNLY SWEAR!" Grinning Leloch returned the salute and yelled,

"Then I proclaim thee all Knights of the Black, defenders of the weak," throwing his fist into the air he bellowed" ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!" once again as one the gathered soldiers proclaimed,

"HAIL HAIL BRITANNIA, ALL HAIL OUR PRINCE LELOUCH!" with that the young man grinned at the camera and said,

"And now world, it's time we all get along."

_**Duchy of Japan, Ashford Academy Student Council Building**_

Staring in shock at the screen Milly, Rivalz, Shirley and Nina sat in silence, eventually Rivalze shifted and looked to the class president,

"Did...did you know those three where royalty?" Rubbing her eyes Milly nodded,

"Yeah, when they showed up broken and bloody at our doorstep seven years ago we helped put their plans in motion, my family owed Lelouch's mom alot, and well...hell look I'm going to be blunt the five of them own roughly two thirds of every mega-corporation in the Empire and the E.U., they've been plotting a takeover for nearly a decade." Pausing she glanced back to the television shaking her head, "Although I doubt they ever thought it would just be handed to one of them, they'd been prepared to burn the world to bring about change, now they just need a small bonfire...fitting really, well I guess this means we need to throw a party for Lelouch, its only proper." Eyes goggling at the blonde Shirley said,

"Wha...how...he's the next Emperor!" Grinning maliciously the scheming noble just nodded as she said,

"Precisely, and if he doesn't want his dirty laundry aired to the media he'll damn well show up, mwahahahaha!"

**_Damocles_**

Shivering to himself Lelouch looked over his shoulder, not seeing anything he bent back down to his workstation, the next few months were going to be stressing to say the least, his illicit marriage to Kallen had already started causing waves in the media, honestly this confused the hell out of him, she was a duchess, he was a prince, boom, whatever. Growling to himself about idiot tabloids he didn't notice C.C. until she wrapped an arm around him, starting he turned to her then relaxed, laughing he expanded the diagram for her.

"Hey my lime haired love check this out, Peacemillion class exploration vessel, she'll be two kilometers in width and one in length, covered in defensive cannons and shields but no offensive weapons, just a ship of science...god I hope I get to see it built." Staring at the smiling prince for a moment the immortal witch looked down at his schematics and couldn't help but smile, her contractor had been busy it seemed. Leaning against him she couldn't help but let out a happy sigh as she breathed in his scent, the oblivious man kept tapping at the screen, still smiling he turned to her violet eyes meeting amber.

"End goal, I want to make it multinational, force all of them to learn a second language, probably Britannian just for simplicities sake but that's' neither here nor there, once we have methods of dialogue I want these things swarming the Sol system, we have to expand and the Damocles propulsion system will be perfect, hells bells the only reason we're so slow in the atmosphere is because this dick compensator is so large that anything faster then a snail pace would tear us apart. By the way my brother is a jackass." Breaking out laughing she just shook her head at her warlock,

She stared at the beautiful man before her and couldn't help blushing, he was a visionary, someone meant to rule with justice in mind, his eager eyes devouring all knowledge before him to make him a better person. Ever oblivious he didn't register her nuzzling him as he kept tapping at the monitor,

"Now the tricks gonna be getting to Mars, I personally think we'd have more luck with Venus, active magnetic field and all but Mars would probably be easier with domed cities, I'm thinking we convert Damocles to a first tier exploration vessel when all this shit finally settles down, shes already vacuum sealed and the engines will be soooo overpowered for what they need to do and...hey you ok?" Looking down at the limette with concern she shifted a bit and smiled,

"No, not at all, but I'll be fine, I'm used to pain." Looking at her in concern she could barely keep herself contained as he grasped her chin and turned her head to face him,

"Hey you can tell me anything you know this yes? We're collaborators, co-conspirators, witch and warlock, don't hold back I want to help you anyway I can." The immortal started to fall apart at this, throwing caution to the wind she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply, he was rigid at first, shocked, then melted into her embrace. Sighing she thought to herself 'Oh what have you done this time you stupid tart.'

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**MWAHAHA! Drown in the impending drama!**


	26. Chapter 25

**Author Note: So this is the last chapter for this arc, there's going to be a two year time skip so just letting you know ahead of time. I'm not honestly sure if I'm going to be continuing this, I really liked how the last two chapters went but I lost both favorites and followers rather then gaining any, maybe I went too far off the beaten path, well only time can tell, enjoy folks please review.**

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_**If I am going to be completely honest I think my greatest mistake during my time as Crown Prince was ignoring the potential threat V.V. presented-Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia**_

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_**Damocles**_

Just because she was expecting to get shot didn't mean she appreciated it, when Kallen had yelled for her attention C.C. had barely turned around before the shotgun slug had torn the top of her head off, after roughly an hour of pot shots the limette sat up in thoroughly shredded clothes staring at the redhead smoking a cigar.

"You done?" She asked apathetically, the other woman stared at her the smoke from her cigar clouding her eyes, eventually she grunted,

"Yeah, I'm good." With that the two of them regarded each other for several moments before C.C. finally sighed,

"Look, I'm sorry I kissed Lelouch but you have to admit he's hard to resist, he's everything a man should be and well..." Kallen sighed as she stood up and threw C.C. a bundle of new clothes, putting her cigar out on the wall she glanced down at the immortal,

"I'm not forgiving you yet but I'm going to let this go, we'd...planned for an eventuality such as this so I was prepared, I reacted like this simply because you were a friend...and I had Luluka's shotgun handy, admittedly mostly due to the latter." Shooting Kallen a look of confusion C.C. stripped shamelessly and started changing there in the hall,

"Planning for what? A mentally unstable virgin immortal making a move on your man?" Looking at her cockeyed Kallen asked incredulously,

"You're a virgin?" Scoffing C.C. pulled the clean pants up fastening them, turning around she made eye contact,

"Is that so hard to believe? I put my faith and trust in one person and she forced this curse of immortality on me, do you think I'd actually be up for a random dalliance?" Fluffing her hair out she snapped the collar of the formal jacket closed, Kallen kept staring for a moment before she continued,

"No, we'd planned that when Lelouch took the throne he might have to have multiple wives like his father to form alliances, although he made it very clear to me he wouldn't be having children with any of them. I don't take kindly to theft witch, and I don't intend to take this passively but I know what kind of man Lelouch is and I'm fully aware of how hard he is to resist." Sighing she cleared the chamber on the twelve gauge and turned away.

"I'm willing to share though, not steal, remember that Duchess," Kallen stopped, and glanced over her shoulder,

"One day I may be able to accept that, for the time being though? I'm keeping the shotgun," with that she walked away and made her way to Lloyd's new labs, incidentally it was as far from Rakshata's labs as he could get them. Walking in on the mad genius and his now girlfriend Cecil he turned from a monitor giving her a wan smile.

"You handled that far better then anticipated young miss, color me impressed," sighing she placed the shorty shotgun on the table, rubbing her eyes she replied,

"I ran out of shells and it felt stupid to go find more just to shoot someone who won't die, thanks for cluing me in on this Lloyd the last thing I needed was discovering this the hard way." Waving affably the grey haired man turned back to the monitor and switched off the security feed,

"Far be it from me to lecture...heh..._anyone_ on the proper way to handle relationships but you're not wrong, the Crown Prince is in an interesting position, he very well may have to have multiple consorts for political reasons. Rakshata and I were discussing this and...oh don't look at me like that yes we were talking civilly it can happen, and we wanted to point out that if you actually bring her into the fold and openly display her there's an 87% chance almost no one will pursue him." Staring at the eccentric for a moment she cocked her head to the side,

"How do you figure that?" Cecil smiled and replied for him,

"Duchess I'm not sure you noticed this or not considering how serious you tend to be but do you realize how gorgeous and dangerous you are?" Blushing deeply Kallen made a series of unintelligible noises as the amiable woman continued, "Imagine seeing someone of Lelouch's presence being trailed by a pair of consorts everywhere he goes, consorts more beautiful then most women have the right being, who follow their Prince into battle and kill and bleed beside him." Lloyd cut in on at this,

"What simpering sycophant trollop would think she'd stand a chance against that? They'd know from the get go that gaining his interest would be next to impossible with the pair of you constantly by his side, in public at least. Simply put, the message would be 'You are not worthy of his affections'." Features screwing in consternation she scratched her hair in irritation,

"I'm going to be honest with you I'm very angry how that makes a certain kind of sense, intimidate them into not trying... all right I have to think about this its still in the squick zone for me." The scientists just smiled and turned back to their work,

"Understandable, that's the problem with having to deal with the nobility, posturing, in fighting, the politicking, its one of the many reasons I'm glad I'm myself, if I actually cared about appeasing any of those people I do believe I'd go mad...well madder I suppose."

_**Damocles Main Hanger, Air Carrier BKS Resolute**_

Luluka was walking through her flagship in frustration, she entered the near empty bridge to find Nunnally playing a computer game on the main monitor, sighing she approached her little sister and put her hand on her shoulder. The younger woman looked up and cheerfully chirped,

"Hiya nee-chan, whats up?" Smiling she replied,

"Heyya kiddo, was wondering if you'd seen Billy Idol floating about, we're heading back to Japan soon to start with the reconstruction and I may need my gear." Nunnally went back to her game while nodding,

"Yeah I saw Kallen make off with it and a box of shells, apparently Lloyd caught Lelouch and C.C. snogging soooo yeah violence is afoot." Looking down nonplussed Luluka bid farewell as she broadcasted her thoughts,

'Lelouch the fuck?' There was a groan before he replied,

'I know I know ok, it just...happened...' Sighing Luluka left the carrier and headed for the main elevator to the command center.

'Yeah I'm sure, was it the first time?'

'...Yes, I was showing her the schematics for our interplanetary vessels and my plans for colonization and well...' she groaned knocking her head against the elevator wall,

'Its probably my fault I kept teasing her about the lady boner she had for you, guess I was more right then wrong huh?' There was what she long ago learned as the mental equivalent of a snort in response,

'Please there are only two people to blame here, no room for company so butt out, my misstep my fault, my problem to fix.' The elevator opened and she was soon in the main control room, Lelouch was at one of the work stations typing furiously, already micromanaging the massive task of uplifting all the previously subjugated former Areas.

"So what are you gonna do?" Not turning he shrugged slightly then went back to typing,

"Its in Kallen's ballpark, what happened happened, you know her she hates cowardice and begging, shes a strong woman either she'll forgive me and we'll work it out or I'll get the shit kicked out of me...there's really no middle ground to that womans rage." She raised her eyebrows at that,

"So your plan is to take it like a man and hope she doesn't break anything permanently...heh...you know that's probably the best way to deal with this, but you realize there's an alternative right?" He stiffened slightly at this fingers hovering over the keyboard,

"Yeah... this whole being made crown prince thing was what, scenario X-34? The one whose likeliness of happening was directly _below_ having to rally humanity to fight off an invasion of sentient starships? I have to deal with the nobility legally which I just never anticipated being a problem, I planned on killing them all, now I have to be polite and that includes humoring arranged marriages. I've already had dozens of audience requests to consider a formal contract...even from some of our siblings, ick, I was ranting about it when Rakshata brought up the alternative. She said Lloyd was going to bring it up to Kallen as well, its a shitty thing to put on her but it might be for the best long term...I have noooo intention of having 108 wives, I already have my wife, the witch, and four sisters to deal with, I cannot handle that much estrogen in my life nor do I want to." Laughing at this his sister smacked him on the back of the head,

"We have a long trip back home to figure this out, and worse case scenario if we really really have to we can geass the nobility into backing the fuck off, now Imma go find our resident redhead and hope she didn't try to beat the witch to death with Billy when she ran out of shells."

_**Above the Duchy of Japan, 3 Days later**_

Sipping from a coffee cup while pacing across the floor monitor Lelouch observed the reconstruction of Tokyo, he'd pooled many of his own financial and material assets to personally help fund the effort, he was liking what he was seeing. Kallen and C.C. were trying to make amends for the kissing and the shooting by working together, paperwork sprawled across the floor as they tried to balance the resources for the reconstruction and necessities such as medicine, food and water, growling slightly Kallen threw a stack of papers aside.

"That damn Chinese invasion has seriously hindered the productivity of this entire country, sure the people are ecstatic to help but they need training first, and the nobility outside of a few exceptions has done nothing to help." Nodding at her compatriot C.C. picked up the dropped papers skimming through them,

"Yes we're going to have to lean on them, we have finances but if they aren't willing to help it means nothing, Lelouch thoughts?" Glancing down at the pair he took a sip of coffee then replied,

"Simply put I'm going to have to make them listen the hard way, have Cornelia place an edict, any noble not willing to donate services to the reconstruction efforts will have their titles stripped, I mean we're going to do that eventually anyway but they don't need to know that now." The two beauties nodded and got back to work as Kallen made the call to Cornelia, walking over to the station Luluka was busily typing at he saw she was doing her best to manage the damage done in the former Area 18.

The constant stream of profanity told him how much she was enjoying that, glancing to the station beside her he saw that Nunnally was playing Galaga, rolling his eyes he walked away from the pair. He'd already redeployed the massive chunk of his forces he'd brought to Pendragon as a show of force to help on the ground below so Damocles felt empty at the moment, Suzaku had taken to calling it 'The Fortress of Solitude,' while Lelouch had called him a nerd for that he couldn't help but agree. Dropping his weary frame into an empty chair he whined to no one in particular,

"Gods running a rebellion was so much easier then dealing with this political bull crap, not having the option to just kill any bastard that gets in your way is a real annoyance," that got an amused snort from Milly as she and Rivalz helped sift through data. The student council had volunteered to help with the effort and while he had trained professionals from Britannia that could do the jobs more efficiently he had selfishly accepted to just have his friends around again. Nina was down in the labs helping Lloyd do whatever it is Lloyd does and Shirley was shadowing Rakshata, he had no idea if the orange haired girl would pick anything up from the laid back mad scientist but stranger things had happened.

"Two years," Suzaku said as he sat down next to Lelouch tapping at an engineering data slate rather then his normal tablet, "Two years to fully rebuild the islands to Britannian standards, think we can pull it off?"

Turning to his brother he cracked a grin, "Of course, we're in charge of it after all."

_**Pendragon, Royal Palace Emperor's Office**_

"Charles," Looking up at the door he saw Marianne in Anya form approaching, she sat down across from him then said, "So I've been thinking." Waving for her to continue she bit her lip then said, "Why do all great empires collapse? Even ours has had its moments where it looked like all was lost." Looking at her quizzically he shrugged with his response,

"There are alot of factors, economics, drought, disease, war, but usually its due to a lack of proper leadership, a single poor regime can bring centuries of work down in months, its the nature of the beast, why do you ask?" Making twirling motions on the desk with her finger she looked around pensively,

"Well, I was thinking that if Lelouch and his little clique can actually pull off what he announced last night, and he can really start unifying the world in peace...how long would it last? Its his charisma, cunning and intelligence tempered by his siblings that have gotten them this far. How many generations until the world slips back into war? One, two? The moment Freyja stops being a threat it could cause it all to come down." Eyeing his wife suspiciously he asked,

"What are you getting at?" Sighing she finally got to her point,

"If, and I mean _IF_ he can pull this off in the next couple years, I suggest we expose them to the specimens, there's four in total not counting your brother wherever the hell he went off to and well... they could keep the Empire stable for eternity." He looked down at the pinkette in shock,

"That...that could work actually, hmm we'd need to keep him safe for the time being he isn't popular with the more dangerous elements of court." At this Marianne snorted, she looked thoughtful a moment then nodded,

"Why not appoint Gino and myself to semi-permanent guard detail? He is the Crown Prince after all so it wouldn't be too odd for a pair of Rounds to keep an eye on him, plus I know Gino gets along with him already." Nodding the Emperor agreed,

"Yes that will work, make it so my love."

* * *

**I never intended for the Lelouch/Kallen/C.C. love triangle, its just kinda wrote itself due to the position Lelouch is in, he'd be required to have multiple wives as Emperor so I figured a good way to ignore having to write thousands of words dealing with the intricacies of court intrigue I'd just have any and all ladder climbers be terrified of his chosen consorts. He may end up with both, he may not, I haven't decided and I want to gauge reactions from readers first because as Luluka said I can bypass the whole thing with a geass bomb but yeah, boring. Although I'm kinda tempted to have them go through the effort of showing C.C. off and causing other interested parties to think they have a chance, I don't know there are just so many ways to screw with Lelouch's life, its hard to choose.**

**As for Kallen's reaction, well even in the show she was considered a genius by her grade standards, and the Kallen I've written has been growing up the past seven years training for war, court politics, and business, she runs a financial empire with the guidance of a kind hearted old man and had started this training before she hit puberty. So yeah, rather then fall apart in an emotional heap at the perceived betrayal she took her rage out on the target then looked at the whole thing analytically, and yes Luluka named all her guns and knives.**

**Lloyd giving relationship advice was just so out there that I had to write it, plus I jump at the chance to throw him in, he and Nunnally are the most fun to play with because you have to step way out of the box to see the world from their special points of view.**

**Now, as to the potential of immortality to the group this idea actually came to me while playing Civilization 5, you're playing an iconic leader from the stone to space age constantly guiding your empire along. What would the world be like if the leader of the people really did live that long and what would happen if they were actually good at their job? So that's where that came from, in all honesty I sincerely doubt I'll have them all accept it, that'd be boring.**


	27. Chapter 26

**_Phase 3-Rise of the Immortal_ Empire**

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_**In other news it has been fourteen months since Crown Prince Lelouch made his dramatic return to Britannia after spending seven years on the run from rogue elements of the OSI, his sweeping reforms have made waves across the world as well as at home. After conferring for nearly six months the remaining nations of the African Union petitioned to formally be absorbed into the Empire after E.U. tax increases alienated voters. Prince Lelouch personally accepted the petition and has already shipped billions in resources to uplift the new member states to Britannian standards as well as elements of his own personal guard to retrain their military. This has unfortunately increased tension with the E.U. who are still suffering from an economic crisis due to its arms build up for the war with Britannian that never occurred.**_

_**-BBC News Broadcast August 22, 2018 A.T.B.**_

_**As arrogant as I can be at times I honestly never expected half of a continent to petition to join the other half that we had already conquered because they were jealous of their improved living conditions.-Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia**_

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_**Damocles Above The Duchy of Japan October 14, 2019 A.T.B**_

Colonel Suzaku Kururugi inspected the lines of Vincent Wards and Akatsuki's being loaded into his personal vessel, the Tonbogiri had been one of the newest airships built by the Empire, an expanded version of the Avalon class that added nearly 100 meters to its length to house additional Knightmare hangers and power systems for its hadron cannons. Suzaku stared at the green and white craft with a smirk on his face, oh there were definite benefits to being married to an imperial princess, speaking of the violet eyed temptress he waved his wife over to inspect his new command.

"Ya know hon if you grin any wider at that thing I'm gonna start getting jealous," Luluka drawled, she was wearing her favorite dress which accentuated her assets in ways that made Suzaku wish they were alone, her raven hair blowing in the breeze of the open hanger. Snorting he gave her a hug before dragging her towards his other new toy, grinning at the unit in question he pointed at it happily.

"_THAT_ you need to be jealous of, Cecil and Lloyd have been working on the Lancelot Albion for nearly two years, I just got it yesterday, it is so...shiny." Rolling her eyes at her husbands antics she pulled out a cigarette and lit it with her zippo, staring at the unit she had to admit it was impressive, letting out a puff of smoke she responded with a dry chuckle.

"Yeah Kallen just got her Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements as well, I'm sure they could hear her squeeing in the homeland, Nunnally got her Valkyrie Gungnir too, all you could see was glowing blue lines across the sky, girl damn near ran out her energy filler she was having so much fun with Cecile's new wing system." As she was about to continue Suzaku grabbed the cigarette from her mouth and stomped it out looking at the professional killer sadly,

"Hon you can't smoke those for eight more months, you know that." The princess glared at him for a solid 30 seconds before she sighed and handed the rest of the pack to her husband grumbling the entire time.

"Seriously bullshit, I gotta play gestation sack for your hellspawn while everyone else gets to have fun, fucking hell." Shaking his head ruefully he patted her on the shoulder while winking at her,

"Love you too dear, Kallen has to put up with it as well you know, you two decided you wanted to have kids the same age to grow up together like you did with Euphemia, can't blame me for that one." Sighing she swatted his hand away while leaning her shoulder against the white knightmare frame,

"Yeah that's the other thing we need to discuss, we're going to reinforce the border between China and the E.U. by Xingke's request, should she really be going into combat in her condition?" Brow furrowing he stared down at his wife with a mild look of fear on his face,

"Babe...you wanna tell her she can't fight because she has a bun in the oven? Me personally I like having eyes," She stared at him for a moment then nodded her agreement, their sister in law could be...feisty.

"I still can't believe he actually swallowed his pride and asked for help, I got the strangest feeling this request was more from Tianzi then anything, she has alot of respect for Euphia and by extension us. Luckily Lelouch feels like we owe the man since you know...we're the direct reason he doesn't have enough units to do it himself." Sighing she reached for her none existent pack of smokes and grit her teeth in frustration, glaring out the hanger she took a deep breath and counted to ten.

Letting it out she continued, "Anyway Lelouch already had the paperwork for the pact of cooperation written up and he just dropped it off at Pendragon, apparently father seemed...confused as to why this was our problem but he accepted it, I have no idea what the hell happened to the man I grew up with but he has seriously mellowed the fuck out the past couple years." Tossing his wife's cigarettes out of the hanger much to her annoyance he just shrugged,

"Honestly Lulu more then likely its because that brother of his isn't there prodding him to focus solely on Ragnarok anymore, with their plans foiled and his heir declared I think the old bastard is just trying to adjust to not having a life goal anymore." Conceding that she stretched out lithely then started to head back to the elevator,

"Do me a favor and lemme know when yer done fawning over your new ride, I'm gonna go make sure Nunnally is packed and on board the Resolute, Lelouch is concerned she won't adjust well to being stuck in a tin can after have free run of a giant flying death fortress." with that she waved over her shoulder and walked off. Shaking his head chuckling he brought up his diagnostic tablet and got back to ogling his very favoritest toy.

_**Damocles Control Room**_

"So why exactly are we helping the Chinese?" C.C. asked, turning to the witch Kallen shrugged, while she relayed orders to the the assembling airfleet,

"Honestly I think Lelouch has been pulling strings to get the Federation to petition membership to the Empire and this is a way to earn the respect of the citizens, ever since we acquired Africa he's been fairly antsy about getting this whole taking over the world thing rolling." Checking the time she continued, "He should be back from Pendragon soon, he had to zap a few more nobles into following him without a damn marriage being involved, _again_." Laughing C.C. stretched out across her perch on the throne,

"Yeah we're more then enough woman for him, I personally have no desire to share, how's the inhibitor working by the way?" Glancing down to the small capsule hanging between her breasts Kallen shrugged,

"So long as its close my Geass stays dormant, kind of a bummer honestly, wish I could do the creepy glowy eye thing without seeing the whole world in after images, never did thank you for helping get these things working." Shrugging C.C. just gave her a sad half smile,

"I started research on it when I accidentally ruined a young boys life, Mao...he eventually killed himself because he couldn't take the voices, I'm just glad I was able to help there be no repeats of the past." Returning the smile Kallen muttered a quiet thank you before tapping a few more keys on her tablet,

"Cornelia and Tohdoh are due to take over Damocles until our return within the hour so we should probably go get our things together and transferred to the Dreadnought, Lelouch will want to take off as soon as he arrives," Nodding C.C. stretched out and hopped down from the throne, cocking her head as if just thinking of something she asked,

"Why are we not taking our Fortress of Doom with us? It does quite a bit to get peoples attention," Kallen snorted at this as they made their way into the hall and towards the elevator.

"Because its so goddamn slow, seriously having to get into LEO every time we want to move this thing is more then a little tedious, plus Lelouch wanted to test out all the new Britannian airships, our Indian made ones have been battle tested already but we have no idea what to expect from the newbies." C.C. replied with a simple "Ah" as they made their way to their neighboring quarters, "I'll meet you in the hanger I gotta gather some pregnancy related crap so I'll be a bit." Waving her friend off C.C. disappeared into her room, Kallen then went through the irritating ordeal of gathering the vitamins, supplements, and nanobot powders required for a royal fetus to correctly grow their implants.

"As Luluka has said I swear to the old gods if I knew I'd have to eat a glass of _sand_ everyday for nine months I would have said fuck it to the whole ordeal...ugh..." throwing the torture devices into her carry bag she scooped up the duffel containing her uniforms and made her way to the dock holding Lelouch's new Logres battleship.

As she entered the bay she couldn't help smiling at her newly finished Guren, she'd only be able to fly her for a few more months due to the cockpit setup so she was going to be spending every free second she could at the stick. Situating herself in her motorbike seat she did a preflight while waiting for C.C., the limette then crawled in behind her,

"I find it mildly amusing that I have to ride bitch," Smirking at her companion Kallen nodded and quipped,

"Fitting no? Come on, lets get on board and see what the oh so mighty Empire cooked up for us."

_**Above the Pacific Approaching the Duchy of Japan**_

Gino Weinberg was really rather fond of his assignment, not that he had actually been on the job very long before he'd been given it but that was just a minor detail as far as he was concerned. Being the bodyguard for the vi Britannia's was to put it bluntly, fun, Nunnally wasn't all there but she was a font of energy and she kicked his ass in the simulator's, something that amused him immensely, Luluka was crass, filthy mouthed, drank too much and more then once gotten them kicked out of the Tower of Babel, pity she was married or he'd be in love. Lelouch though, the mans dry wit and supreme confidence made everything he said either serious or hilarious, and while his intensity could be overwhelming at times he treated everyone around him as equals, it was no wonder that he had built an army from nothing. Thankfully for Gino, Lelouch liked him, and they'd become friends over the past two years, that's why he found it so damn odd that the Crown Prince seemed so bottled up. Hell even Anya noticed and she rarely entered the real world for more then a couple minutes a day, finally the silence getting to him he asked,

"Lou...man the silent act is killing me buddy whats going on with you?" The prince snapped out of his revery and seemed to notice he wasn't alone for the first time, he looked a bit uneasy then dropped his head sighing,

"I'm...going to be a father," with that both knights perked up,

"No kidding! Thats great, no offense to you man but for their sake I hope they take after Kallen," snorting at that Lelouch simply responded,

"Me too," he remained quiet for a time then said "I knew this was coming, she'd always said she wanted to have kids, and well...hell man you've seen me kids make me lock up, they're like filthy mini-adults who can't clean up after themselves, what could I possibly know about being a father?" Gino laughed at that before snarking,

"More then your old man I'd wager," with that Anya looked at Gino and nodded in agreement. Lelouch sighed again leaning back into his seat gathering his thoughts for a bit, eventually he said,

"My father...didn't love any of his wives aside from my mom, and he didn't care about any of his children, except apparently us three but up until two years ago I'd have laughed in anyone's face for suggesting that. Here's the thing, once word gets out I'm having my first born...more of these royal wannabe twats are going to come climbing from the woodwork hoping I'll be Charles 2.0...I don't want to put my family and my future children through that crap, once was enough for this country. So what I'm trying to figure out is how to get out of dealing with the constant marriage requests...GODS DAMMIT! Things where so much easier when I could just kill my enemies to get my end result!" Gino shook his head laughing,

"Dude its not like your monogamous I know what you and C.C. get up to," The violet eyed man glared at his friend a moment before he growled out,

"That's different, she doesn't want marriage, she can't have children, and Kallen is cool with it, and I'm still not sure _I_ am, but she needs an emotional anchor and the pair of us are it." Gino frowned at this while scoffing,

"And the fact that she's beautiful has nothing to do with the decision making process?"

Lelouch hesitated then sighed, "It doesn't hurt no."

"Honest," Anya simply stated, Gino just plastered his trademark grin back on,

"Man seriously you're thinking too much about it, when you're not forced to go it alone Kallen's your constant shadow and lemme tell you she terrifies most of those helpless little flowers, seriously next time you go to court just ride down to the palace in the Gurens claw and have Kallen escort you in her commando sex goddess outfit she wears when we go and blow shit up. You're so obsessed with being subtle, be the direct _opposite_ of subtle bro, you're dealing with women who have been bred to be submissive and stupid, you're married to freaking Xena, let 'em see that." Anya echoed an agreement, Lelouch just let out a small laugh as he lit a cigarette,

"This is why I like having you two around, a damn reality check from people that aren't borderline sociopaths...all right next time I have to make a social call to Pendragon I'll have Kallen play the vengeful archangel, hell she'll probably enjoy it...Gino anything you want for the Tristan?" Startled at the topic change he floundered a bit and muttered how he liked Bismarck's new sword, Lelouch grinned at that. "The Excalibur? I'll have Lloyd manufacture you a pair of half sized versions so you can actually use them, consider it thanks for talking some sense into your prince." Gaping at the royal he just snapped his mouth shut while he heard Anya mutter,

"And this is why men follow you."

_**Vermillion Forbidden City Chinese Federation**_

Ambassador Euphemia li Britannia was being led through the grand palace for Jiang Lihua's most recent lessons, the young teen was a sponge for knowledge and she and Kaguya had been more then happy to school her in the methods of politics and leadership. Its had taken time but she'd even earned the trust of her students steward, Xingke could be very cold and terse but he'd eventually warmed to her, holding back a giggle she pushed the details of their last date to the back of her mind, business first. As they reached the heavy double doors a courtier announced her presence as she made her way up to the white haired teen, bowing lightly Euphia smiled,

"Tianzi a pleasure as always, are you ready to start today's lesson?" The petite fifteen year old grinned as she hopped down from her throne and tried to rush up to her while also looking dignified, she did well enough in Euphia's estimation. Taking the girls hand she led her to one of the side offices to begin her moderns politics courses when an explosion tore through the room, stone, blood, and fire sprayed throughout the throne room as Euphemia threw herself over the Tianzi wincing as she felt bits of debris puncture her back. Turning around she saw at least a dozen men rush into the room wearing the armor of European shock troopers start spraying the area down with SMG fire, standing to try and get the Empress away Euphia felt a searing pain spread through her belly as she was perforated with automatic fire and she fell to the ground next to the dead body of one of her bodyguards.

In another world, another timeline, this kind of injury would have spelled the death of the pink princess, here though she was a daughter of the Holy Britannian Empire, one of the chosen to lead, and so with her iron will clamped down she ordered her implants to shut blood flow off to the damaged areas and flooded her body with stimulants, healing nanobots, synthetic adrenaline and something she shared with her favorite brother, blind rage. Sitting up the bloodied royal pulled her pistol out of her hidden holster as she grabbed her dead guards SMG, the soldiers where sifting through the corpses obviously looking for Lihua, leveling her pistol at the furthest attacker she snapped off a shot that took him through the eye burrowing through the plexiglass lens of his helmet.

As his body began to fall Euphia already snapped of six more shots from the pistol acquiring an equal number of kills, as she was doing this the machine pistol in her left hand was spraying the troops on the other side of the room with suppressing fire, as the gun clicked empty she dove over to one of her kills and scooped up his rifle, she fired on the shocked shock troops until it ran dry. Reloading her pistol she stood up and began executing the survivors, as the slide locked back on her last round she looked upon the chaos before her.

"Heh...and Cornelia was always afraid I was too soft..." with this she passed out with a grin on her face falling to the broken floor below.

_**Above the Sea of Japan enroute to the Forbidden City**_

As the news of the attack on the Imperial Palace by E.U. dissidents had reached Britannia one little tidbit the orchestrators of the attack hadn't anticipated had occurred, one of the favored sisters of the Crown Prince had been badly injured defending the Tianzi Jiang Lihua, and so the small flight of carriers that had been intended as token of good well had swelled into an air armada a hundred strong. As the fleet made its was to recover the injured royal Lelouch stared with cold eyes at the approaching shore line, neither of his consorts dare say anything as his synthetic hand crushed the armrest beneath it, glaring over at Gino Lelouch simply hit a key activating an open broadcast. At first no one heard anything the sound too low, as it started to build up Gino's eyes widened noticeably as the build up Holst's 'Mars, Bringer of War' played across every channel.

"Oh shit" he whispered.

* * *

**I think this is a turning point for my story, I decided to play with some socio-economics, long made short Lelouch halted the mass invasion the E.U. had been preparing for the better part of a decade, with the threat removed the politicians began to scramble due to wasted tax dollars on war machines being unrecoverable causing an economic crisis, so a splinter group tried to escalate things with a nation they considered weaker to justify the armed forces existence and keep the tax revenue flowing. Problem is, Lelouch is about to happen, I think my story weaving is maturing as I break the bonds of the shows canon, if nothing else I'm really enjoying myself.**

**I know Gino is sort of repeating what Lloyd and Rakshata said but C.C. didn't want to become an official consort and to be blunt her partners didn't want her to be either, plus getting advice on your relationship from someone who wasn't actively trying to design the Death Star for giggles is always helpful. Oh hell there's a thought...a Rakshata/Lloyd designed Death Star...**

**Also, how do you guys like the Euphiater? That was fun envisioning.**


	28. Chapter 27

**The temptation to make the mellowed out direction and goal less Charles like The Dude from the Big Lebowski is intense, must resist... **

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_**Why didn't my husband use the Freyja devices on the E.U. parliament? What would nuking Paris accomplish other then murdering three million people and 100 idiots? No his method was slower but it protected the innocent- Empress Kallen vi Britannia 2023 A.T.B.**_

* * *

_**Vermillion Forbidden City Outskirts**_

The massive force of Panzer Hummel's had moved on China's capital in the dead of night out of terror that the Black Prince's eyes would see them approaching and burn them with nuclear fire, the blitzkrieg tactic had been developed by Field Marshal Rommel but he had refused to lead the attack as had de Guelle. So it had fallen to General Santiago, who was currently cursing her superiors to hell. Britannia's expansionism had always been a problem but after Crown Prince Lelouch's return it had become a living force and he never even had to fire a shot, all he had to do was be the direct opposite of his father and the world flocked to him.

"And so we find ourselves here..." She sighed again pulling her gray speckled blonde hair from her eyes, the plan had been simple, secure the Tianzi, use her as a shield to avoid a Freyja strike and get back to Russia. After that the politicians could extort the federation for everything it was worth to try and make up for their complete lack of ability to lead, she'd even heard they were talking about increasing taxes _again_ even though the last time had cost them a goddamn continent. Looking to her second in command she sighed his name, "Timeo". Turning to face the general the young Frenchman asked,

"Yes ma'am?" He looked at her with a bit of resignation, he knew what was coming just as she did, their mission was a complete failure and the idiot infiltration team had done the one thing that could possibly end their world, they'd hurt one of the Black Prince's sister.

"Timeo...this will end in a route...when I give the order make sure all the men know to eject from their frames, the Prince follows the rules of war and won't harm them, we can't win this one my friend." Sighing she leaned against her frame, "The Germans and Fins refuse to donate any of their forces, they're keeping the Panzer Wildschwin's to themselves and have even threatened to pull forces entirely if parliament keeps pushing for war, apparently both had armies present when the Prince burnt the Portugal coast and the soldiers have refused to do anything to provoke him...smart men..."

"Indeed, I was there too, he incinerated 60,000 of his own countrymen and countless billions in war assets to prevent an invasion...and parliament just hit him with the biggest stick they could find." Shaking his head sadly he pulled out a flask of cognac and offered it to his superior,

"Gracias amiago," she muttered queitly as she drank down half of the flask, handing it back to her subordinate he finished it off and tossed it to the ground.

"Well...I am going to go and prepare my coffin, I will see you on the other side ma'am," with a crisp salute the young man marched to his kneeling panzer. Looking towards the sky she saw vague smudges of green glowing in the twilight, as the minutes grew longer they defined themselves as exhaust plumes from FLOAT and air glide system engines...there where dozens of them. Crossing herself she ordered her men to stand ready as hundreds of Knightmares disgorged from the approaching vessels, sighing in resignation she sealed her cockpit just in time to see the approaching force open fire.

The cone of hadron, baryon, radiation burst, and VARIS blasts burnt a circle of glass around her army, not one of her units had been destroyed yet they were surrounded by hundreds of meters of molten earth. A squawk came over the channel and a dangerously emotionless voice emerged from the speakers,

"This is Crown Prince Lelouch vi Britannia, this is your only warning, surrender now, unconditionally, you will be treated as well as the Geneva conventions define, you have sixty seconds to comply." Not even hesitating the general ordered all her men to disembark from their frames, as they walked away from their engines of war Timeo ran up beside his general,

"Ma'am...this is treason you know," Looking down at the young man...so damn young...she glanced back up at the approaching armada and then at the still smoking ring surrounding her army,

"You know Captain...I don't rightly care at the moment...have anymore of that cognac?"

_**Twenty Minutes Later**_

The Guren, Valkyrie and Lancelot hovered above the cowed army to do little more then look intimidating as hell while Lelouch and Luluka disembarked from the kneeling Gawain, as they approached the E.U. command tent the Prince simply threw the flap back and approached the makeshift desk inside. The woman behind it looked tired, her blonde hair streaked lightly with gray, hazel eyes looking exhausted, she spoke in Britannian with a light Spanish accent,

"I will first and foremost thank you for not slaughtering my men, you have quite the reputation for embracing the cold calculus of war and I do not wish to encourage you to not give quarter in the future." The older woman sighed deeply, reaching into her pocket she pulled out a cigar and lit it, looking at the two royals for a moment she produced another pair and offered them, Luluka practically dove on it lighting it with a grin. Lelouch shrugged and accepted the gift, biting off the end and lighting it with one of his mothers zippos he took a drag and smiled,

"Ah damn you Spaniards know how to roll a fine cigar," still smiling he looked down at the woman across him, "Brigadier General Isabella Santiago, you have quite the reputation yourself, I'm glad your hubris didn't outweigh the desire to keep your men alive." Taking another blessed puff from the exquisite cigar he continued, "So here's the deal, you're government is for all intents and purposes, inept." The woman snorted and muttered,

"Dime algo que no sé..." Grinning Lelouch nodded at that,

"I have an...abnormal proposition, I want to recruit you and your forces, to put it simply I intend to conquer the world and bring it to Britannian standards of living, dissolve the nobility making everyone truly equal then execute anyone stupid enough to stand in the way of humanity getting off this rock and assuring that our species won't be wiped out by one madman with an itchy trigger finger." Plopping himself in the seat opposite of her he mulled his next thoughts, his sister sighed and pressed on,

"We didn't wipe out your forces because it was unnecessary, sure we'll lob WMD's willy nilly if your stupid enough to be in the open but civillian casualities are unacceptable and you happen to be encircling a city with my little sister in it. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you had nothing to do with strike force that botched the snatch and grab on Tianzi?" Sighing Isabella shook her head,

"The second I heard what those pendejos did I knew we were dead, nothing riles you two like your family being threatened, infact it almost seems like they planned on it." Grinning Lelouch said,

"They did, you see your parliament has been circumvented by a a little bastard named V.V., he has an irrational hatred for us because he was jealous of my mother, if thats any indication of his stability. He ordered the shock troopers to murder my sister while they where to extract the Tianzi in an attempt to draw us here and take us out with a crude nuclear fission warhead. Bad news for him, his agent delivered it to one of mine, go figure, whats more the idiot didn't burn his orders that's why we're having this pleasant conversation." The general stared at him blankly for a moment, cigar falling from her mouth, leaning back into her chair Luluka groaned out,

"That's right miss, we've all been drawn into a world war by a psychotic with a brother fixation." Taking a breath from her cigar with a look of ecstasy on her face Luluka mumbled, "I will literally murder a nun for a box of these." Regaining her composure the General muttered,

"Now I know why de Gaulle and Rommel told the Vice President to fuck off when he gave them this assignment..." Holding her head sighing she looked up at the twins with suspicion "How can I know that you're not just making this up to get me to commit treason?" Lelouch smiled at her with true mirth in his eyes,

"Excellent! Paranoid and suspicious, the last thing I need is a commander that blindly accepts what she is told, come general I'll show you what your government was about to do to you and your men." Standing abruptly Lelouch grabbed his sisters cigar and put it out, she turned to growl at him but he just pointed to the sky and said "Husband," groaning she muttered thanks and followed her brother outside. Waiting before them was a beaten up old cargo truck with a middle eastern woman leaning against the door, seeing their approach she kicked off the truck and saluted the royals,

"Allah guide you your highness, I have good news, and not so good news" Smirking he returned the salute,

"Good to see you again agent Durriyyah, lets go with the 'not so good' first," nodding she pulled up the door on the cargo hold and flicked on a light, inside was a metal sphere with dozens of wires hanging out of a hole drilled into its side.

"This device is by Miss Einstein's estimation only 6% efficient compared to a F.L.E.I.J.A, that means it would be a smallish explosion with an intense EMP, more then enough to overpower any shielding you may have had on your electronics, in essence you would have all fallen to the ground and died and the troops already on the ground would be cooked alive in their frames." With that a deep growl left the Generals throat, ignoring this the agent kept talking "Now the truly horrible thing about this weapon is how little of the uranium is expended upon detonation, long made short its crudeness would make this entire area radioactive and uninhabitable for decades." Rubbing the bridge of his nose in aggravation he replied,

"And the good news agent Durriyyah?" She smiled sweetly at him,

"I intercepted it and deactivated it of course, the courier who handed it off to me is bound and gagged in the cab, his signed orders are in the glovebox, he's all yours your highness,." With that she smiled and walked off, sighing Luluka made for the passenger door, drawing her favorite shoto from her back she yelled over her shoulder,

"Come on, Bob Saget wants to meet this fucker."

_**Air Battleship Dreadnought 40 minutes later**_

C.C. sighed in relief as her lovers made it back aboard, turning away from the monitor she sat in the command chair pulling Cheese-kun close, 'Having people you care about makes life so much more...uncertain.' She thought to herself, after a few minutes Kallen and Lelouch walked in and she hopped up to greet them, giving her a lopsided grin the raven haired boy gave her a quick kiss while Kallen gently slapped her rear, rolling her eyes at the antics she plopped back into the command seat.

"So she surrendered I take it?" Kallen busted out laughing and sat in front of her,

"Better then that Ceciliana, she folded her forces into our own, once she found out everything and relayed it to the troops...well loyalty stops being a thing when you find out you were bait in a nuke trap." Lelouch picked C.C. up and sat in the chair propping her on his lap,

"Indeed, I'll have their panzer's fitted with air glide systems, this ought to be interesting, I don't think anyone's fielded flying _tanks_ before, I'm a man of firsts." Snorting she pecked him on the cheek as she hopped up, pacing the floor she glanced at the couple,

"Next move?" Lelouch frowned and shrugged,

"Dunno hon, we're going to check in on Euphia and see if she left anyone alive to question, she's my sister so I sincerely doubt it but there's a slight chance, outside of that we're making for near LEO and bypassing the Russian forces. Seriously I know what V.V. was planning and I have no bloody intention of laying siege to fucking Russia as winter sets in, we're just avoiding it entirely." The prince sighed while rubbing his temples, "I suggested to dad that our fleets should hit the mother isles and reclaim them but he's either drunk or stoned as of late so gods know if I'll have permission when I'm ready, currently I'm looking at strategic targets." With that he pulled out a folded piece of paper and spread it out revealing a map of Russia. Kallen looked towards C.C. and asked,

"Know anything about the area love? There's a massive E.U. armor build up here but its Siberia so we're kinda tempted to just drop limiterless Freyja's on it till there's nothing that enjoys vodka left." C.C. snorted as she curled up to Kallen resting her head on her knee's staring at the map,

"Hmm, there's an old Directorate base here but...no V.V. is a paranoid little troll, go ahead and bomb it he'll likely be in Europe proper, the German's have no patience for his bullshit so its either Paris or Madrid." Nodding Kallen tapped a few keys on her tablet, staring down at the green haired witch she asked,

"Whats up?" C.C. just smiled while shooting up and kissing the redhead, settling back down ignoring the flushing woman she muttered,

"Thanks for making immortality worth living...thats all."

_**Vermillion Forbidden City Private Hospital**_

Lelouch, Luluka, and Nunnally approached the ward holding their sister, as they neared her room they saw her Knight standing outside looking pensive, she was dressed head to toe in heavy combat armor and had a drum fed shotgun hanging from her single point harness. Seeing the approaching royals the exhausted woman snapped to attention the grief evident in her eyes, Lelouch stared at her a moment then returned the stiff salute, he remained silent then sighed.

"Ok Baroness, what happened?" Deflating a bit at the reminder of her title and the failure to defend the one who gave it to her she tried her best to keep her voice steady,

"I...while its no excuse it was my day off, her normal bodyguard detail was doubled which is standard procedure when I'm not there, I was aboard the Enterprise having lunch with Ohgi in the captains cabin when a group of Panzer's that had been smuggled into the city hit our float systems." Taking a deep breath she let it out shuddering slightly, "It was...terrifying my lord, the complete free fall in a metal coffin... at the last second Sgt. Shigeru Fujiwara and Lt. Jeffery Tyler got underneath us and overloaded their air glide systems to slow our fall, they saved the crew but the carrier is scrap. They're both in intensive care, they didn't stop pushing until their frames exploded and they were autoejected...I'd like to put them both up for a citation of valor and a suggestion for promotion, that kind of initiative is something we need in leaders."

Lelouch nodded to her letting the woman gather her thoughts, "When...when we finally were able to pull ourselves from the wreckage that's when we saw what happened to the palace, at that point Xingke had gotten the Shenhu in the air and evaced the Princess and Tianzi... I was able to pull the security footage from the throne room if you'd like to see it your highness." Nodding he accepted the PDA, a minute later he looked...impressed, Nunnally was grinning and said,

"Fucking Euphinater..." shaking her head Luluka replied,

"More like an avenging angel...I'm never going to poke fun at her for wearing pink all the time again." Lelouch handed the PDA back to the Knight and grabbed the door handle, turning to her he made eye contact and said,

"It wasn't your fault, I know what its like to be powerless to protect those you care about, if it means anything, I bear you no grievance," with that he entered the room, on one side Li Xingke was holding Euphemia''s hand gently talking to her while Tianzi was on the opposite looking mortified at her friends state. Euphia looked over at the newcomers and smiled wanly,

"So it takes a gut shot to warrant a visit from my family? I'm offended." Smiling the trio made their way to the foot of her bed, Luluka spoke up first,

"How ya do'in powderpuff?" Chuckling lightly in return Euphia winced then replied,

"Other then having my lower intestines shredded and killing a dozen men like I was starring in the Matrix...doing pretty good, they say I'll be fully mended within a week, marvels of modern medicine." Xingke squeezed her hand a bit while smiling,

"You were spectacular, you managed to defend my charge and look amazing while doing it, bonus points for prose," She gave him a grin that sent alarm bells off in Lelouch's head 'Ah fuck they're a thing aren't they'. Luluka glanced over incredulously with a simple 'Duh'. Euphemia sighed and gave them a tired grin,

"As ecstatic as I am to see you guys I'd like to get some sleep ok?" The three of them nodded in understanding, as they were about to leave she called out, "I heard what you did Lelouch, giving them a chance to surrender instead of killing them all in a blind rage...thank you...I'm glad to know the little boy I grew up with is still in there somewhere." He grinned back at her and nodded, with that they left the room, Lelouch looked at Villetta and sighed,

"Baroness you're relieved for the time being, go see Ohgi and console him the Enterprise was his command for the past year he's gotta be balling his eyes out." Smirking she saluted and marched off, Lelouch ordered a full guard detail to take her place and the family headed outside to plan for bloody retribution.

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**I reeeeeally hope I didn't overdue it with the Lelouch/Kallen/C.C. thing, I'm trying to focus more on C.C. having to cope with actually letting her emotions free and if the response is good I'll focus a bit more on that later, also I decided her name is Ceciliana because A.) Its pretty, B.) it has two C's in it and C.) You're not going to be someones long term lover and call them a bloody codeword all the time. As for recruiting the Europeans, I'm trying my best to make it as clear as possible that the soldiers and civilians have absolutely nothing to gain from war and its solely the government mucking things up, hope my friends across the pond don't mind. As for nuking the Russians, well they kept their war material away from civilian areas and winters setting in, Lelouch doesn't fuck around. Hope you enjoyed I'll more then likely have an update tomorrow or Wednesday, till then as always review and have a good one!**

**Edit: Well lost a whole lotta followers on this one, thats...a bummer honestly but not much I can do about it. This was a transition chapter, its not like Lelouch and company are going to faceroll their way across Europe people, it'll stay interesting this was dealing with the aftermath of the last chapter, oi.**


	29. Chapter 28

**You have absolutely no idea how much fun I had writing laid back drunk Charles, I kinda just wanna write a story about him and Nunnally hanging out comparing kills**

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_**The thing about V.V. is while immortal he was only technically sixty and he spent most of his time playing spider, he never really had to deal with the reality of chaos, that is how my son routed him so swiftly in those early days-Former Emperor Charles zi Britannia**_

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_**Air Battleship Dreadnought above the Vermilion Forbidden City October 17 2019 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch was really not looking forward to this conversation, two years ago the idea of talking to his father civilly would have been about as ridiculous as...Lelouch being declared crown prince. As things stood now with the truth out on what had actually happened and why things had gone the way they did he nurtured a begrudging fondness for the wily old bastard, Nunnally on the other hand talked to him regularlly on the phone to tell him about her day. Apparently the Emperor looked forward to the calls and thoroughly enjoyed them where Nunnally loved getting her father's advice because it usually boiled down to ,"Kill them", "Break them", "Extort them", or a combination of the three.

There was the caveat, the Emperor's primary contact with humanity since his lifes goals fell apart and he started going down hill was Nunnally, cringing he hit the dial key. A minute later Charles zi Britannia appeared on the screen, he looked regal as ever but their was a hint of mischief in his face as he eyed his son, smirking he said,

"So I hear ya got into C.C.'s pants, atta boy son tried to do that for twenty years, never gave me the time of day." Grimacing Lelouch silently wondered if he didn't actually miss the old megalomaniac version of his old man, sighing he said

"Hi dad, I shudder to think how you found this out but yes she's taken to being my consort, thats no-" Charles barked out a laugh and interrupted the prince,

"So is she crazy in the sack? I always wondered that, mystery of the unknown and all." Closing his eyes and counting to ten Lelouch released the breath he had been holding,

"You've been drinking Absinthe again haven't you?" Charles face fell as he shifted his eyes around a bit,

"No! Well...maybe...kinda...yes..." Holding his face in his hands Lelouch simply thought 'Fuck it',

"Yes dad she's crazy in the sack and I can barely keep up with satisfying her and my wife, does that appease you?" Charles laughed as he fist bumped the monitor, 'Why me? What did I do to deserve this?', as his dad poured himself another glass of the green goblin Lelouch tried to get him back on track. "Dad I was wondering if you reviewed my plans for the invasion of the Mother Isles?" Eyebrows knitting in concentration the Emperor looked thoughtful for a moment then shrugged,

"Sure, totes go for it, you taking Nuni with you? Tell her not to be a stranger or she'll get booted out of the raid group." Now officially sure he had lost his fucking mind and was in fact locked in a psyche ward imagining this shit Lelouch sobbed,

"You need a fucking hobby old man," nodding knowingly he took a sip and responded with,

"Thats what your mother keeps telling me, why I'm playing that game with Nunnally, she's trying to help me get my tier set, damn shammy gear keeps dropping." Lelouch held his head taking deep breaths trying not to hyperventilate, he was counting to sixty while Charles described his class when something clicked.

"What do you mean thats what my mother says, she's dead!" Looking slightly evasive Charles hid his mouth behind the glass and muttered,

"Yes yes, of course, ahem well I'll give Cornelia command of the third fleet and Shneizal the sixth, they're both chomping at the bit to kick the Eurotrash off our real estate, go ahead and confer with them I'll talk to you later son my yoga instructor is here", and with that the vid disconnected. Lelouch broke two years of sobriety as he reached into his desk and downed the bottle of brandy in one pull, dropping the empty container in the wastebasket he proceeded to bang his head against the desk until the strong liquor kicked in.

"I'm adopted, I have to be fucking adopted."

_**Atlantic Ocean Approaching the British Isles October 30, 2019 A.T.B.**_

Cornellia smiled viciously as she stood on the deck of the massive carrier battleship plowing its way through the surf, soon, soon they'd take their homeland back and the Humiliation of Edinburgh would be vindicated. It was one of the few points all her siblings including the prone to violence vi Brittania's could agree with, those islands where _theirs_ and they weren't about to ask for them nicely. Shifting a glance to the dozen's of flight equipped Vincent Command and Ward models being loaded on catapults next to their Gareth cousins she had to resist the urge to cackle, while cathartic maniacal laughter was only for when you were terrifying your foes, not your subordinates.

"Kinda wish Tohdoh was here," she mumbled, THERE was a man who could appreciate a good cackle so long as it was in private quarters, smiling again for a completely different reason she pulled her field glasses out of her pocket and observed the other ships of her fleet. While airships where in fact the way of the future these vessels still had value, for starters they didn't explode the second their shields gave out, always a plus. As she mused the benefit to cost ratio of making her flagship into a flying fortress Guilford walked up beside her,

"Your highness, its time," Chuckling she shoved the glasses back in her pocket as she stalked towards her dark violet Knightmare, splitting off from her Knight she climbed into the cockpit and started her pre-flight check. Her Vincent had been a special present from her sister in law, equipped with the same slash harken/blaze luminous used by the Lancelot it also sported a pair of hip mounted hadron cannons as well as a copy of the Albion's variable VARIS rifle. It truly was her most favorite thing. Clicking to her command channel she couldn't help but smile,

"My men, today is a day we've been dreaming of for one hundred and fifty seven years, today we take back our true motherland, our Isles, they know we are coming, they are prepared for us and they know we want blood. They are dug into their little fortifications cowering at the sight of the glorious might of our Holy Empire! Today, make them remember the day that the British took back their home!" With that endless flights of knightmares, bombers, and interceptors took to the sky, as they cleared the firing lane the battleships and missile cruisers opened up with all they had. As Cornelia charged forward she watched the first of the ordnance tear into the lines of Panzer Hummels.

"ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!" Was screamed across all channels as Schneizal's force approached 90 degrees from her troops position, as they neared the shore a snarled cry she belatedly realized was Lelouch roared out "No one provokes Britannia with impunity, FOR EUPHEMIA!" and hundreds of beams of energy fell from the heavens destroying the artillary positions dug into the cliffs. So thus began the seige of the European Union.

_**Air Battleship Dreadnought**_

There was few things about her heritage that truly grated on Luluka, the Humiliation of Edinburgh happened to be one of those things, the problem being Luluka was a Britannian, and they did not take insults lightly. Sure it was damn near two centuries ago but the whole injustice of what had happened to Britain infuriated her, the nation she descended from had long stayed out of other peoples wars by manipulating the idiots to fight each other and ignore them. It was a smart tactic, then fucking Nepoleon happened, he would have been routed at Trafalgar too the man was absolutely hopeless on the sea, the sea was Great Britain's domain, then the son of a bitch had Nelson assassinated.

"Pay backs a bitch buckos" she muttered as she ordered another salvo of fire on the scattering armor below, the anti-air fire was ineffectual, her fleets shields and CIWS systems swatting everything out of the air. Seeing a hole open in the line she ordered a detachment of her new Panzer force to drop in and use their superior armor to withstand the potshots from the infantry as they broke deeper through the ranks, as if on queue the lines shattered and attempted to run only to be gunned down, unknowingly echoing her brother she whispered, "Dance puppets dance."

_**On the ground**_

The Euro Turncoat Army as they'd taken to calling themselves smashed through their former comrades with zeal, nothing motivated quite like remembering you were currently supposed to be a fucking radioactive stain on the outskirts of a dead city. Timeo LeBeau expertly drove his Panzer through a crumbling building wall, the black and silver tank from hell not even slowing as it ran over the men hiding behind it.

Snapping his main cannons up he laid suppressing fire on a group of tanks moving to flank their position, they fell almost instantly. Grinning to himself he couldn't help what he always felt on the battlefield, superiority, with that he kicked on the air glide system to do a brief jump over an AA nest as he dropped a pair of missiles into the fortification, touching down he searched for more targets.

_**Around the corner**_

Nunnally scoured the area clean of armor with a blast of her hand baryon cannon, swinging her new spear expertly she sliced the legs out from a trio of panzers as she activated her wings and sprayed the remainder with energy darts. Cackling maniacally over open channels she charged the European version of a G1 and stabbed the violet glowing Gungnir through the bridge, with a twist she rended the entire deck open, firing a baryon pulse through the hole she flew away as the land battlship exploded. Landing daintily on top of a pile of destroyed knightmares she observed the battleground,

"More, I need more," she laughed as she kicked off the ground and charged further into the battle, a rabid wolf among sheep.

_**In the thick of it**_

Kallen had been fighting beside Suzaku for years, they worked like a well oiled machine, she kicked a tank over as he impaled it with a sword, he wrapped a panzer with a slash harken and she clawed its cockpit off. A group of nearly twenty panzer's rolled around the corner and as one they both activated their wings spraying the group with energy darts, killing them all instantly, wings still active they rushed forward slamming through the derelict units.

Landing before the main command base Kallen spread the Gurens claw wide and blasted the entire thing with a concentrated radiation wave while Suzaku flew directly outside of its reach cleaving any loose knightmares in half. As the base exploded Kallen rushed forward and slashed the fleeing VIP VTOL in half sending the base commander to his death into the side of a building, as they stood their amongst the ruins Nunnally landed beside her siblings. As they watched the enemy army collapse around them, they all raised their weapons in victory, it would not be the last.

_**The King Piece**_

Lelouch fired his hadron cannons at the approaching enemy fighters, they all exploded instantly and peppered the surrounding city with flaming debris, while he calibrated the next attack C.C. piloted the Gawain towards one of the two remaining AA nests, she fired all ten slash harkens demolishing the facility, looking to the east they could see Cornelia's forces breach the seaside bulwark as VARIS and hadron blasts tore through the defenders. Shaking her head slowly she muttered,

"I can't believe it...they'd never waste these many forces on a faint, they really expected us to hit Russia...oh hell thats why we nuked Siberia isen't it?" Grinning viciously her boyfriend chuckled lightly,

"Indeed, and then I nuked the reinforcments they sent, I honestly don't know whats going to run out first, idiot generals or my missiles." Smiling ruefully she piloted the Gawain towards their three Ninth generation Knightmares, they seemed a bit lost which wasn't surprising, they were warriors and there was nothing worthwhile left to fight. As they landed the three units saluted in unison, it was unnecessary but it was also their choice, before he could say anything a black and silver Panzer peeled around the corner, a murmured "merde" was transmitted from the machine. It rolled forward and the image of General Santiago's second in command popped up,

"This...this is what you would have done to us if we'd refused surrender...isn't it?" Keeping silent the three frames turned to the Gawain, sighing Lelouch said,

"Yes, this is what we're capable of." There was dead silence from the other machine, then a light chuckle was heard,

"So...who do I have to kiss to get one of those Gareths?"

_**Air Battleship Dreadnought**_

Nunnally was druuunk, she couldn't help but indulging, their victory had been swift and complete, soon the entirety of Scotland would be under Britannian control and they could move on to the rest of the isles, she poked her head into her Nii-san's room but he was snogging Kallen and C.C. so he'd be no fun, looking for Luluka she eventually found her hiding in a lavatory trying to hide the cigar she was smoking. She wouldn't nark on her their implants actually filtered that crap out to the fetus, Suzaku was just too old school to believe it, wandering around she felt her cellphone vibrating, pulling it out and seeing who it was she excitedly flipped it open and squealed,

"Hey daddy! Guess what I killed today! Oh shit yeah a ton of 'em!"

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**I should have probably added a bit more to this but I had so much old gods damned fun writing Charles that nothing else really added up to it, hope the battle scenes made sense I was trying to show multiple angles of the same battle at once. Ah well, good news I'm still having fun so another update in the near future!**


	30. Chapter 29

_**Translations for Timeo's french at the bottom of the page, I'll have more tomorrow or the next day I've been neglecting Tohdoh for far too long.**_

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_**No, at the time I had no idea Lloyd meant the goddamn thing was literally a prototype of the Deathstar's laser...you'd think I'd have known better-Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia**_

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_**English Isles, Air Battleship Dreadnought November 10 2019 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch was pulled from the fog of dreams by a persistent chirping, cracking his eyes he traced his gaze to the perpetrator of the noise complaint and tried his best to hate the comm unit into silence. Sighing in resignation that he had not in fact spontaneously acquired Sith powers over night he attempted to worm his way out from inbetween the two sleeping women beside him without waking them. Wrapping a robe around his naked form he made his way to his suites private communications station, rubbing the sleep from his eyes he clicked the "Accept Transmission" icon and was surprised to see alot of...pink.

"Lelouch! Oh no did I wake you? What time is it there? Oh I'm so sorry!" Sighing at Euphemia Lulouch shook his head smiling, glancing up at his favorite half sister he waved her worry off.

"How's it going Euphia? I take it this is important?" Her face fell at this, looking down at her hands pensively she took in a breath and said,

"We need your help, China needs Britannia's help, like right the hell now." Suddenly coming fully awake he leaned forward, concern dripping from his voice he asked,

"What happened? Are you ok? Are Geno and Anya still there on the Tonbogiri? I ordered them to protect you at all cost-" She cut him off with,

"The E.U. attacked enmasse with new units, alot of new units, definitely 8th generation, the Chinese Gun-Ru's might as well just self destruct they may actually take one of them out if they time it right. I'm fine, Xingke is hurt...he's in the medical ward now, the Shenhu is badly damaged, they crushed him in numbers the only reason he's alive is Anya air dropping on them in the Mordred. Hell the only reason the capital hasn't fallen is the fact you left those two here with a small flotilla." Groaning Lelouch rubbed his face in consternation,

"Why, why are they persuing a two front war it makes no damn sense! Gods damnit... Ok I...I'm not sure what I can do we have the pact but legally I can't send any forces not under my direct command and as of right now we're about to take Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester fell yesterday. Gah..." A small voice interrupted his rambling, behind Euphemia the diminuative form of the Tianzi approached the cam,

"I...I won't let my people fall to an invasion, while I'm sure my ancestors will be rolling in their graves for this decision it is one I must make, if it where not for you and your ilk I'd either be dead or a pawn of the Eunuchs still anyway..." She took in a breath and let it out slowly, "I Tianzi Jiang Lihua formally petition China's entry into the Holy Britannian Empire, and request the immediate aid due to a member state." Lelouch just stared at her blankly for a moment and even Euphemia looked shocked, a smile crept up the Black Prince's features as he burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha! Well played young Empress... All right by the power vested in me by the Emperor I Lelouch vi Britannia hearby accept the Chinese Federation and all her peoples into the Empire and I declare Jiang Lihua as the new viceroy of the Duchy of China. Her title shall remain Tianzi out of reverence for the harsh personal sacrifice she has made, the position will remain hereditary insolong as your descendants are competent. Your sub-viceroy for the time being will be Euphemia li Britannia and you'll be soon receiving direct aid from Japan and the Homeland as soon as I make some calls." The young womans eyes widened at the news while Euphemia gave him a thankful smile,

"Tha...thank you your Highness," He smirked at her while picking up his king piece twirling it,

"One must reward those who are willing to sacrifice their personal station for the sake of their people young lady, I expect great things from you. Now if you don't mind I'm going to go rouse Tohdoh and let him know he gets to try out that new Deathstar laser Lloyd and Rakshata installed on Democles, hang tight ladies, helps on the way."

_**Air Battleship Dreadnought CIC Four Hours Later**_

Captain Timeo LeBeau followed his commander into the massive airships CIC, even though he'd been part of the Britannian force for a couple weeks now he couldn't help but goggle at the flying wonder, his ever jaded General didn't let it phase her though. Approaching the prince, their prince? He really wasn't sure about their political affiliation at the moment, anyhow as they approached the man in charge he gave the pair of them a nod of acknowledgement.

"General Santiago, Captain LeBeau, we were just about to start the briefing and I was wondering if you knew anything about the commander of Birmingham's garrison, one Major Mathias de Gaulle?" His face falling Timeo blurted out,

"C'est âne putain ingrat!?" Lelouch raised his eyebrows in curiosity,

"I take it you know him?" Gritting his teeth Timeo nodded as he tried to relax his clenched fists,

"That égocentrique fou graduated in my class, we're both eighteen years old and our rich as sin fathers both bought our commissions, but we're polar opposites." With that Isabella snorted,

"Yes, your father wasted his money you're the best second I've ever had, that pendejo..." sighing Timeo continued,

"Anyway, he's riding on the coattails of his family name, his great uncle Charles was a major player a few decades ago and he has family sprinkled throughout the military, they can't stand being around him." Taking a deep breath he tried once again to relax, "the bâtard is a true believer in democracy, not that its a bad thing normally, I mean he literally believes _everything_ our government says, and if you disagree with him he'll go on hours long monolouges about your deficiencies and why you're wrong. It was literally like arguing with an insane computer, you'll never win. His strategies are...Hilare idiot et téméraire, I seriously have no idea what we're facing here because it will be pure and utter chaos, the man cannot lead." Lelouch eyed him a moment then sighed,

"Luckily I speak French...ok well since we're dealing with an incompetent we'll not bother with anything elaborate, you seem to be thoroughly enjoying your Gareth so I'll keep you on the fire support squad but in charge this time, you're damn good and I intend to use you to your full potential, any complaints general?" Isabella grinned and shook her head,

"No its fine Prince, he's a born leader, take advantage of that." Nodding Lelouch began the briefing in ernest.

_**Birmingham, England Six Hours Later**_

Nunnally was singing with the J-pop playing on her speakers as she was blasting Panzer Hummels into oblivion, the truth was fighting these guys stopped being fun like, a week ago. She sighed to herself as Gungnir cleaved through five at once,

"Are you guys even trying? Ch-rist its like fighting Carine all over again," With that she snapped up a palm and vaporized an approaching group of gunships with a baryon blast. "I mean at least she had the dignity to fight to her fullest, you assholes just keep backing up like you're about to piss yourselves firing at random." It should be noted that all of this was broadcasted on open channels, music included, as she rounded the corner her wings searing lines into the buildings she spotted a new group. "Ooo, new toys!" Before she could charge one of the Panzer's screamed,

"Oh god its the Reaper of Edinburgh!" Cocking her head she let that percolate for a moment,

"That's...FUCKING AWESOME! I get my own ace moniker? Holy shiz-nette not even Suzu has one of those yet!" She cheered this as she charged the group of Knightmares and killed them all. So cool, her own title, Reaper of Edinburgh, man that was like Nightmare of Soloman or Red Comet level there! Smiling happily she flew above roof level to spot another European land battleship, she charged at it humming with her music, she loved blowing these things up, their reactors burned a pretty green. Before she could get a lock on its a stream of heavy rifle rounds nearly clipped her,

"Halt you imperialist pig! I Major Mathias de Gaulle challenge you!" With that a new machine flew down to her level, its looked...badass honestly, monoeyed with thick armor and a pair of folding cannons on its hips, looked like the shield held a retractable blade, oh oh oh and its float units looked like huge bell shaped thrusters, neat.

"And a new contender appears! Sweet I was hoping you blokes came up with something new, lets do this!" She charged forward as the new machine pulled back taking potshots,

"You will never defeat our glorious cause! Our way of life exiled you fools once before and it shall do so again!" Nunnally stopped for a moment raising her eyebrows,

"Are you monologueing? Oh hell you're actually monologoueing," The man had kept talking while she said this, getting frustrated she yelled, "Will you stop talking and fucking fight already?!" The man snorted at her as he fired a laser(!) from his monoeye, 'Ok credit where its due, that's awesome',

"You Britannian whore, I'll gut you like the animal you are!" Gritting her teeth in annoyance at the mans one liners she replied,

"Excuse me _sir_, I'm the Reaper of Edinburgh, I had to kill _alot_ of people to get this title and I'd appreciate it if you would use it," As she said this she fired a baryon blast at him that missed, well it did hit that mobile base, she watched the lovely green flames for a moment before parrying the Major's charge, blade extended from his shield.

"Your way of life cannot survive, once the President unlocks the secrets of immortality we will ascend to the role we were destined for!" Eyebrows raising at that she evaded another jab as the man backed off and fired his hip cannons, missing he managed to kill two of his own Panzers.

"Wow, you're really bad at this, like super bad, man you're making the French look terrible, I know a French guy but he's crazy awesome, gets drunk with us and doesn't talk nearly as much as you, and when he does its dirty bar songs. The hell was your name again?" The man roared in rage as he charged forward again.

"MATHIAS DE GAULLE!" The Valkyrie twirled Gungnir lightly while Nunnally said,

"Oh ok," and she cleaved the approaching machine in half watching the pieces crash into the pavement below and explode. "I should ask Timeo if he's ever heard of you, hope you weren't friends that would be really awkward."

_**Birmingham Outskirts Three Hours Later**_

Isabella took a long drag from her cigar, grinning at the mayhem around her, Timeo was nursing a glass of cognac as they watched the recently surrendered troops being escorted outside the city. Timeo seemed a bit drained but that was to be expected, it had been his first command under fire, she was about to ask him how he was doing when Princess Nunnally walked up to them.

"Heyya General ma'am, Mr. LeBeau, I have a question for you." Looking up the blonde man smiled gently,

"Of course Princess how can I help you?" She looked pensive then sighed,

"Do you know a Mathias de Gaulle?" Timeo went rigid at that his grey eyes going wide, Nunnally seemed to shrink down at that a bit and she whispered "Oh." Sighing she gave him a wan smile then continued, "I really hope he wasn't close to you, I kinda murdered the hell out of him a couple hours ago, still friends?" Timeo's eyes bugged out of his head as he stared at the brunette pilot, quickly walking forward he grabbed her by the shoulders and picked her up kissing her fully, holding the now blushing girl in a tight hug he swung her around happily then placed her back on the ground. Kissing her again he cheered,

"Vous belles petit ange de la mort, vous n'avez aucune idée de la chose merveilleuse que vous avez fait pour moi!" With that Timeo hugged her again and started skipping away happily singing in French, a heavily blushing Nunnally turned to General Santiago and asked,

"General Ma'am?" Looking at the teen in bemusement she replied,

"Yes Princess?"

"Does...does Timeo need anyone else killed?"

_**Paris France, a Cafe**_

Erwin Rommel sat in his chair reading a recent action report cursing lightly, the President dropped the ball, again, at this point he really had no idea what the hell to do. In days gone past he'd looked at the Britannian Empire as a horrific reflection of the Nationalist Socialist Party that his grandfather had helped crush several decades back, then the Black Prince showed up. The same Prince who in the guise of Zero burned 60,000 of his own people to prevent needless bloodshed, the same Prince the fucking President provoked into attacking the Union by having his beloved sister nearly murdered. Growling lightly he didn't notice his companion approach until the shadow passed over him, glancing up at de Gaulle the redhead grinned cheerfully,

"'Ello Chloe, as radiant as ever," Smirking down at him the white haired young General sat down at the table, waving down a waiter she ordered her coffee and turned back to her long time compatriot.

"Hello love, so how badly is it going?" her soft voice did nothing to hide the steel underneath, once again thinking how lucky he was the Field Marshall shook his head in anger,

"ve're vell and truly in trouble dear, for some reason the President ordered a _second_ strike on the Forbidden City, this time the Tianzi petitioned to join the Britannian Empire, the Prince accepted and Democles is now heading into a defensive position." Cringing the snow haired woman stared into her drink in horror,

"The Empire controls more then three fifths of the world now...maybe a bit more considering what I'm hearing from the British Isles...Erwin...what do we do?" Staring into his lovers eyes he shook his head sadly,

"Mein lieber...I have no idea."

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**Translations for Timeo's blatant use of French, This is from Google translate, if any of my French readers would like to fix what Google molested your language into please PM me**

**C'est âne putain ingrat=That donkey fucking ingrate?!**

**égocentrique fou= self centered fool**

**bâtard=bastard**

**Hilare idiot et téméraire=Hilariously idiotic and foolhardy**

**Vous belles petit ange de la mort, vous n'avez aucune idée de la chose merveilleuse que vous avez fait pour moi!=You beatiful little angel of death you have no idea the wonderful thing you have done for me!**

_**Also, I fucking love writing Nunnally.**_


	31. Chapter 29-A

**Just letting you guys know this is not setting a new tone for the story and it will be the only time it happens, this is honestly just me letting off steam, think Gainax making Fooly Cooly after doing Evangalion, just a bit of silliness I hope you folks can indulge me in.**

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**_Damocles_**_**, Approaching the Vermilion Forbidden City**_

Tohdoh really wished he was anywhere but here at the moment, being forced to babysit four mad scientists while riding a miles long flying fortress to defend China with a weapon code named the "Deathstar Laser" was not on his itinerary.

"I'm supposed to be at a golf game with Cornelia right now," he muttered to himself while holding the bridge of his nose doing his best to ignore the eccentric geniuses arguing with each other. His second in command Marika Sorsei was doing her best to not look amused by the situation, eventually not able to take it anymore she asked,

"So, why do you guys call this thing the Deathstar Laser?" They all stopped and looked at her confused, Lloyd responded first with,

"Because its the main weapon we designed for the Deathstar," Tohdoh and Marika quickly exchanged glances then looked back at the grinning man. Marika opened her mouth, then closed it, rubbing her temples, she let out a long breath,

"You guys took a super weapon from a movie series meant for the sole purpose of blowing up planets, were inspired by it, and designed one of your own?" Rakshata smiled nodding,

"Yes of course dear girl, as we already told Prince Lelouch when we installed the prototype, its a scaled down model of course, I doubt we could even crack the crust with it at full power." Nina sighed sadly at this,

"Really wish we could test that, stupid extinction event would ruin everything though, we're testing it at 5% today." Tohdoh stepped in at this point asking rather pointedly,

"Lelouch knows this thing is literally based off the Deathstar?" Lloyd hummed a note then sing songed,

"Nooo he probably assumed it was a code word, like how the Vincent's where 'Project Cannon Fodder', or the Tristan was 'Project Scooty Puff Junior', now that I think about it I probably should have clarified...hmm...details." Now officially scared witless by what they were about to unleash Tohdoh was about to order the damn thing taken offline when the sensors officer yelled that they were four kilometers over the Forbidden City and they could see the massive E.U. force besieging it, he could barely see Suzaku's loaned out flagship but even from here he could tell it was listing.

"Dammit they don't have any time left...sir I don't think its a good idea to let this thing be used but if we don't do something..." Marika said this with trepidation, nodding Tohdoh, looked at Lloyd and sighed,

"Aim it directly in the center of their formation, on their land battleship if possible," With that they scrambled adjusting countless switches and dials, when they were done Cecile brought out a coin and flipped it, while it was in the air Lloyd yelled, "Heads!" and it landed tails up. Smiling Rakshata walked up to Tohdoh handing him a firing switch, coughing lightly she said,

"Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battlestation! You may fire when ready commander." Tohdoh looked at Lelouch's collection of crazy for a moment then shook his head, turning towards the monitor he hit the switch.

Underneath Damocles a long cylinder centered in a gyroscope folded out a beveled disk that then extended a focusing iris, it looked like nothing more then a large satellite dish. The mechanism then aimed down into the formation below, several green beams shot out along the perimeter of the dish collecting on the central focus, with a flash one last centera' fired beam shot out and a massive pulse of energy flew below and incinerated the army...and roughly a kilometer of terrain.

"Its beautiful" Lloyd said with a tear running down his cheek, Tohdoh stared at the mushroom cloud for thirty seconds before he ran into the comm room and called Lelouch.

_**English Isles, Aboard the Airbattleship Dreadnought**_

Staring numbly at the images Tohdoh showed him Lelouch shook himself out of his stupor, glancing up at the concerned looking man Lelouch ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Tell them to take the damn thing off line and uninstall it immediately! Holy hell we just _got_ that real estate we're not supposed to be blowing it up! Oh for the love of god Lloyd I know you misled me on purpose you've been talking about this damn thing since I met you!" Growling in frustration Lelouch disconnected with Tohdoh and called Euphemia, there was several tense minutes when a shell shocked Euphia screamed,

"WHAT IN THE FUCK LELOUCH!?" Sighing in relief he say back in the chair,

"I was misled by my scientific team on exactly what the weapon they were using was...did it cause any damage to the city?" Right eye twitching the disheveled pinkette tried to calm herself, after roughly two solid minutes of silence she finally replied,

"Just a lot of heart attacks, if you'd kindly tell whoever built that thing that I'm going to personally beat them senseless I have a few thousand terrified people to calm down...thanks for taking out that army though, love you."

"Love you too," he mumbled as he shut the terminal off, behind him C.C. and Kallen restrained their laughter for roughly five seconds before they were rolling on the floor in stitches, 'Why did I quit drinking again?' he wondered off hand, at the moment he really couldn't think of an answer.

_**Dreadnought hanger one hour later**_

"So they seriously built a pulse laser powerful enough to break the Earths crust?" Suzaku asked his little sister, Nunnally got a dreamy look on her face as she purred out,

"Hell the fuck yes! Sadly Lelouch thinks having a weapon that could effectively end all life is a terrible idea so he had it shut down and cut Lloyd's budget in half to punish him." Suzaku sighed at this, seriously they had way more important things to worry about then their personal mad scientists trying to blow up the world for...science. Glancing over to the young girl he quipped,

"For losing out on your chance to fire a super weapon at random targets you're awfully chipper, something up?" With that she blushed and hopped off the Lancelot's foot,

"Err...no, hey talk to you after dinner Suzu, laters!" With that the young woman scampered off, shaking his head ruefully he went back to work on his maintenance.

_**Dreadnought Observation Lounge**_

Taking another puff off the cigar she'd been given by General Santiago Luluka stared at the fields of green before her, tomorrow they would be heading towards London itself, oddly it meant little at this point. London as Britannian's knew it had been burnt to the ground after the revolutionaries had executed every man, woman, and child still loyal to the throne, which had been more then half the city at that point. The stories said the blood was ankle deep throughout, it couldn't drain to the sea fast enough and when the city caught afire you could smell the fluid boiling for miles. Thats what they were reclaiming, the grounds of carnage, casually wondering if she should actually be this angry considering how much damage she had personally done to Britannian before being brought back into the fold she just shrugged. If Great Britain hadn't fallen perhaps Britannian never would have risen, she'd never know, puffing on the cigar she watched the sun set on London's last day of occupation.


	32. Chapter 30

**Ridiculously Huge Authors Note:**

**Since so many asked Timeo just turned 18, due to the political system of the E.U. seeming to be based on a combination of early democratic parliament ideals and good old corruption you can still buy your kids a commission, the caveat with our young friend is General Santiago got lucky and he's damn good at his job. Nunnally just turned 16 and she is a self admitted sociopathic serial killer with four siblings who literally take over financial empires and slaughter armies for fun, Timeo will be keeping it in his pants until she is legal because he likes living. On a side note if anyone wants to envision what the General and Captain look like think an older Integra Hellsing and a younger Pip Bernadotte with blonde hair, yes Nunnally reflecting shades of Alucard and Seras is completely intentional, Alucard's love for battle and complete lack of empathy but with Seras innocence in that she feels no malice or fulfillment from the slaughter, its just enjoying a job well done (well ok yeah she enjoys killing a bit too).**

**HE-SpecOps-Hello my fine French friend, I'll hopefully get to fixing Google translates crimes against the croissant this weekend, as for Napoleon I know, my entire point with Mathias was that he was completely and irrefutably idiotic and the only reason he lasted as long as he did against Nunnally was that he managed to frustrate her. Part of Nunnally's frustration in her River Tam mind is all French people should be crazy fun like Timeo so running into this guy just threw her for a loop until she got bored.**

**As for Charles de Gaulle and Erwin Rommel I tried being clever there (apparently failing) and make folks think I was just copying historical figures but we were in fact dealing with their descendants. Who is more recognizable on the German side in WWII then Field Marshall Erwin Rommel? (Biased since my granddad had to fight against the son of a bitch) so everyone assumes its the real deal rather then his grandson who was named after him, you'll notice Chloe's gender is only revealed in Paris when they meet for coffee.**

**Just to make things clear since I fucked up the reveal his grandfather was the original Erwin Rommel, he was named after him and since WWII didn't happen his grand dad had to deal with the National Socialist revolt (Nazi's) but it was beaten down quickly since without a Treaty of Versailles fucking things up for Germany no one wanted to deal with their nonsense and it died in its infancy. On that note Hitler died in anonymity when a cat knocked a potted plant out of a five story window and brained him when he was 20. Rommel got his Desert Fox moniker doing hit and run raids against Cornelia during her take over of North Africa and the Middle East, they mutually respect and loathe each other.**

**Keep in mind I haven't written anything in almost twelve years, honestly the entire point of this fic was to break the rust off the gears and move on to better things, luckily for my growing number of readers I enjoy the hell out of this stuff.**

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_**Pendragon Imperial Palace, Charles Office November 14 A.T.B.**_

Charles took a sip of wine and looked at it in disgust, 'Merlot...man that's anti-freeze', grimacing he threw the glass at the wall and it expertly slide into the trash bin, as he contemplated whether the Empire could survive him cracking open the absinthe again he got a call, smiling widely he answered.

"Nuni! Hows it going honey!" His exuberant daughter smiled in return to her father,

"Hey daddy! So guess what, I got an ace moniker!" Frowning a bit he cocked his head,

"Like Marianne the Flash and people calling Cornelia the Bitch of Britannia?" She broke out laughing at that and couldn't stop for a solid minute, catching her breath she said,

"No daddy, '_Witch'_ of Britannia, and yes, I'm the 'Reaper of Edinborgh' and its totes awesome cause I killed the shit outta like, everyone to get it." Charles clapped laughing while shaking his head,

"That's great, wait till I tell your mother she was this ecstatic when she found out that she'd earned a nickname too!" Nunnally grinned wider at this nodding vigorously,

"Totes tell her! But thats not all that happened, so I ran into this French dude that was like the complete opposite of this other French dude I know, my gods the bastard wouldn't shut up, like we're talking Guinevere's mom levels of bitchy here." At that her dad winced, damn he hated that woman,

"Gods...tell me he's dead, please," bobbing her head happily she chirped,

"Cleaved the frog in two, right after he team killed a pair of his own guys and let his base get fragged," Charles smirking at her muttered "newb", Nunnally agreed,

"Totes, so anyway that other French dude Timeo apparently was arch enemies with the dead French dude, I asked if he was mad cause I had like, no idea if they were friends or not and that shit gets awkward." Charles nodded sagely at this,

"Yes, try it being family members, 'Oh you killed my son', well no shit he attacked me with a damn sword in the middle of the night...ahem...sorry dear continue." Nunnally waved it off as she picked up her tale once again,

"So anyway I got worried he was mad and then he ran up and kissed me, like 'Fireworks over Pendragon on Foundation day' kissed me, it was awesome, then he hugged me, kissed me again then skipped off singing. So I have no idea whether I should try to jump his bones or slit his throat for daring to touch me, thoughts?" Charles closed his eyes and thought about this a second,

"How old is he dear?" She rolled her eyes and responded eighteen, nodding he continued "Well here's the deal, loves rare, and you sound fond of him and you speak rather highly of the boy so I can only assume he's a good man, I say take it slowly but have fun. I have 108 wives..ugh...but I only ever actually enjoyed my free time with your mother, if you find someone you can spend your days with and just enjoy the simple things, take advantage of it. Hell if he made a move on you knowing who your family is he's either supremely confident or a complete fool, and I have more faith in you then to assume the latter, don't do anything stupid, make him wrap his tool...a couple years from now...and just live life honey." Smiling at her father she whispered,

"Love you daddy," He grinned and replied with I love you too, clearing his throat he asked,

"So is the raid still on for tomorrow or is it cancelled due to London falling and all that?" Nunnally pouted as she leaned into her chair,

"Cancelled, even if we take the city in one night theres no way the nets going to be stable, bollocks."

"Laaame, all right I guess I'm going to go to court and pretend I care what this Duke has to say, I swear to god honey they get whinier every time," Nunnally giggled and bade her father farewell. At the thought of having to go into that throne room and dealing with those people he cringed, reaching into the desk he cracked the absinthe open and poured a glass, sipping it fondly he glanced at the country of origin and made a decision, "Yup, we're taking Switzerland next."

_**English Isles, Air Battleship Dreadnought's Main Hanger, Novemer 15 2019 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch exited the elevator to the main frame hanger and made his way to the crouching black and silver giant that one Captain Timeo LeBeau was fiddling with, one of its massive crab like hands splayed open with wires hanging out. As he approached he noticed that one shoulder was emblazoned with a caricature of a lobster wearing a black robe swinging a scythe with "Le homard de la mort" written underneath it, resisting the urge to laugh Lelouch coughed loudly. Timeo stood up abruptly and looked at the prince with worry, 'Smart man' he thought, deactivating his geass inhibitor Lelouch said,

"I'd like to ask you several questions, at the end of said questions you will perform one task for me, is this understood?" The geass taking over the mans grey eyes he simply nodded. "Why did you kiss my sister the other night?" Not hesitating the Captain said,

"Because she killed someone I've wanted dead since I was twelve, that and I think she's very pretty and fun to be around, the cognac may have something to do with it as well." Lelouch smiled at that, 'all right moving on',

"What are your intentions if any towards my sister?" Once again geass did its magic,

"None if she wants nothing of it, I had intended to apologize but we've been busy preparing for the final charge. If she were to accept my affections I'd gladly court her."

"And what of her being dangerously sociopathic?" the man shrugged 'Huh, new one',

"We're all damaged in some way or another, you just have to know what her triggers are to avoid them, she boiled it down to 'Don't be a dick and I have no need to kill you' when we first met, simple guideline to follow." Trying his best to not laugh at this he asked the final question,

"What of intimacy, she is a minor after all," Once again the Captain surprised him

"I've been a virgin for eighteen years, whats two more? Also her family is full of women that could easily murder me and make it look like an accident, I enjoy living." A laugh finally bubbling out he shook his head, 'Damn ever since my power fully manifested peoples answers have gotten way more interesting.'

"Ok, my task for you is to remember the context of this conversation but not the details, once I light my cigarette you'll return to normal and behave as normal." With that Lelouch lit his smoke and the captain blinked, swaying a bit his eyes widened, before he could say anything Lelouch cut him off. "So about Nunnally, you have my tentative approval of courting her if she's interested." Eyes widening he whispered,

"I do? I mean thank you Prince." Nodding at this Lelouch blew a cloud of smoke above his head,

"Here's the deal, no sex until she's eighteen, or is the age of consent seventeen? Hell I'll have to look it up, anyway this is going to be a strain on you because guess what? I believe you have the willpower to keep your hormones in check, you've got an iron will." Grinning evilly at the confused man Lelouch put the cigarette out on the Gareth next to them. "The thing that will be a strain is Nunnally is of the line of Britannia, my family does not ask for things, we take them, and if she wants something from you, she will take it, and you have to resist her."

As the Frenchman started paling Lelouch, still grinning clapped him on the shoulder as he walked away, "Its going to be a very long two years mon ami, have fun."

**_An Hour Later_**

Nunnally found Timeo alone on the observation deck looking across the black expanse to the lights of London in the distance, the room smelled faintly of cigar smoke so either Luluka or General Santiago had been here earlier, making her way to him she leaned her hip against the rail and waited. Eventually he glanced over and smiled sheepishly, his blonde ponytail swaying with the motion'Oh...sexy' she thought.

"Hello princess, I just had a very interesting conversation with your brother," her eyes narrowed 'hells bells if he fucked this up...' sighing she said out loud,

"And what did he have to say?" Blushing a bit the Frenchman looked around the room awkwardly then sighed dropping his head in resignation,

"That if I wish to court you I have his permission, he had some stipulations but I can live with them. So princess with that woul-" he was interrupted as she jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and arms around his neck she kissed him as he had kissed her the other night. The princess could only think 'Hell. Yes.' while poor Timeo could only think of Lelouch's last command 'You have to resist her...Dieu aide-moi'

_**CIC of Air Battlship Dreadnought**_

"You know that was unnecessarily cruel Lelouch" C.C. chided him, rolling his eyes at this he decided to not remind her that she was 900 and sleeping with a 19 year old and just shrugged.

"I had to have some fun while setting boundaries, its my prerogative as an older sibling," Luluka crossed her arms and nodded her head with a look of agreement on her face. Sighing Suzaku said,

"Not to get back on track, but could we get back on track?" They'd been planning the siege of London for two days now and it was giving them a headache, Isabella had informed them that the city had recently installed four towers designed to fire high output lasers to swat airships, the search for countermeasures was not going well.

"I could probably get in close and fry the sensetive circutry with a radiation pulse but with the new blaze luminous knock off they're using...I don't know guys we might actually have to do some serious damage to the city to bombard these things," sighing Kallen leaned back feeling a bit queasy, 'damn pregnancy'. Lelouch snaked an arm around her waist and said,

"Well...no no I told Lloyd we can't use that again...ugh...they had to build these damn things in residential zones didn't they..." Luluka made eye contact with Suzaku who looked at her pensively, then closing his eyes he sadly nodded his head.

"Ok I say you have me infiltrate the fucking things, at least one of them, they're all LoS of each other and if I can time it right I may be able to team kill a couple of them, if nothing else it will open a hole in the defenses." The group looked at Luluka with concern but she waved it off, "I'm pregnant not an invalid, my geass is basically guaranteed to at least get me through the front door, after that well...hell its anyone's guess." Looking thoughtful for a moment she excitedly added, "Oh hells yes this means I get to break out Problem Solver! I haven't gotten to play with it since Kallen got it for me for my birthday!" The concerned looks turned to ones of terror, what the hell was she planning that she needed a drum fed automatic grenade launcher?

* * *

Le homard de la mort-Fear the death lobster

Dieu aide-moi-God help me

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**I like Timeo, so of course I have to torture him. This chapter is a build up to the actual invasion of London, I'd actually write significantly more tonight but I have a friend coming over and well, social obligations, blah. Also this was a first, I enjoyed writing every segment of this chapter, everything flowed perfectly for me, no complaints, you all have a good weekend and as always, review!**

**Oh if anyone is wondering all the pilots have custom crests, Kallen's is a white shield with Guren's upturned claw holding a Lotus flower with "Beauty in Violence" written in calligraphy. Nunnally's is a pinup style angel leaning up against the Gungnir with the caption "Made in Heaven" written below it, Suzaku's is a white falcon holding a pair of crossed MVS's in its claws with the kanji for "Fight For Tomorrow" in between the blades. Isabella's is a mushroom cloud with "No olvido, no perdonado" (Not forgotten, Not Forgiven) underneath it **


	33. Chapter 31

**To everyone wondering if I'll stop these quick posts, no, in so long as you all keep reading and reviewing and I find fun it I'll keep writing as fast as I can, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself and loving the world I've been weaving the past month, enjoy my friends you're the reason I keep going.**

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**To this day I have no idea why we all assumed we had the market cornered on mad scientists-Princess Luluka vi Britannia**

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_**Approaching Air Defense Tower Two, London, **_**_England_**

As Luluka approached 'Air Defense Tower Two' she mulled the definition of 'Chaos', chaos was the unexpected, change where there should be stasis, a breaking of the norm if you will. That's the funny thing about chaos though, everyone tries to plan for the unplannable and so they miss the obvious causes of chaos, such as a young woman with a grenade launcher. Adjusting her hapatic glasses and making sure her skirt showed _juuuust_ the right amount of leg she made her way up to the guards at the door. Both were typical male specimens, nothing important to note here, they were obviously checking her out which was the plan, they'd ignore the over large duffle bag if they where ogling tits, ass and legs. 'Men, delightfully predictable,' smiling slyly to the uglier soldier she cooed,

"Heyya honey I'm supposed to make a delivery to a" she feigned checking a datapad "Commissar Piers, could you point me in the right direction?" The now flushed man shifted uncomfortably with the now very close beauty,

"Err, all deliveries are supposed to be made to the rear gate for out processing ma'am" pouting while slightly quivering her lip she sighed,

"Well poo, ok thanks cutie see you later," With that the man waved for her to stop and said,

"Err, we sometimes allow special deliveries to be processed in the lobby, I..I'll ring you in." Flashing him a winning smile she made sure to strut past him just right, making eye contact and giving the appropriate smirk annnnd he's hooked. 'Dude'll be thinking about getting back to his bunk as fast as possible rather then the armed infiltrator that just walked into his base, sometimes its awesome being me.'

As she entered the lobby she turned off her inhibitor and let geass do its thing, walking past the now confused guards she made her way to the elevator, swiping the guards key she queued it and entered. Hitting sub level 2 she patiently waited for the car to come to a stop, exiting the elevator and passing yet another confused guard she made her way to the towers main armory. Letting herself in she passed the distracted armorer and entered the small side room containing a shit ton of plastic explosives, taking a spare duffle out of her already over stuffed bag she grabbed as much as she could carry, snagging a handful of detonators as well she made her way out.

As she was about to leave the room she stopped, on the wall where a line of sleek black pistols, each had a boxy integrated silencer and extended magazines, the ported slides and tritium sights just added to the sexy. Looking left and right she quickly rushed up and grabbed one, '_Whisper'_ was engraved on the slide, not even thinking about it she grabbed all four of them and scrounged around for the boxes containing the appropriate ammo and mags.

Now laddened with wondrous loot she headed down to the lowest sub level that contained the bases reactors and sub generators. Stopping long enough to load a few of her new toys magazines she threw on a set of BDUs and laced up her favorite combat boots. Pulling on a tactical vest she then equipped her dozens of knives, jamming the newly purloined pistols into the back of her belt she grinned in anticipation.

Slapping blocks of C4 onto the cooling systems of the reactors and the fuel tanks for the backups she wired the lot of them to her hapatic interface, that done she made for the elevator and rode it to the command center. As the doors opened she pulled out her new pistols and cackled,

"And now chaos ensues!" Firing the suppressed shots the near silent armor piercing rounds tore through the rooms staff, after mozambique'ing the lot of them Luluka tore the base commanders key card from his belt and activated the system. Typing rapidly she set the targeting parameters for tower three and one, satisfied that her work was done she hit the timer, the laser would fire off in less then two minutes. Riding the elevator down to the lobby she took a defensive position behind a wall and waited for the fireworks.

Thirty seconds later the turrets let loose on their siblings, she'd find out later that tower three practically exploded at once, no defense even possible from the surprise attack. The turrets then realigned on tower one but the laser blasts hit now active shields, letting the towers duke it out she prepared for phase two. About two dozen soldiers came charging out to rush for the elevator when they were rudely introduced to Problem Solver, the twelve gauge size grenades sprayed into their ranks sending blood,bone and meat flying.

As the the machine gun from hell's bolt locked back Luluka observed her handiwork, grinning she gingerly hopped around the piles of bodies and made her way past the two guards out front, both watching in horror as their tower and its neighbor slugged it out. Deciding to let them live she made her way towards tower four as tower three exploded, smiling at a job well done she activated the explosives in tower twos basement rendering the installation useless.

Whistling "Damn it feels good to be a gangsta" as she loaded a new drum into her weapon Luluka watched true chaos unfold, 'And now for phase 3'.

_**Air Battleship Dreadnought**_

"Your wife is terrifyingly efficient at her job," General Santiago stated to Suzaku, grinning he nodded in agreement, she'd managed to take out three of the towers in less then five minutes and the remaining one was too busy dealing with the constant swarm of incoming missiles to counter attack the encroaching airfleet. Lelouch contacted Schneizal on the main monitor,

"Brother, how goes the blockade in the channel?" Schneizal looked a bit harried but remained collected, allowing a rare smirk he quipped,

"I do believe they are taking exception to our presence, our shields are holding and the French keep trying to send airships through, they're not formidable but they have alot of them, expect at least a handful to eventually get past us" Through the windows behind Schneizal he could see a massive explosion wash over the battleship then dissipate, his brother sighed in annoyance, "And that would be the third one that rammed us, talk to you later Lelouch, don't die." With that the image went blank,

"You too brother..." Lelouch muttered. As Cornelia's forces made their way up the Thames Lelouch took a deep breath, Luluka had ten minutes to take the final tower or all their plans would collapse, silently he grabbed C.C. and Kallen's hands and held them tight. Both women just glanced at him sadly as they returned the grip, the entire operation was now dependent on one hyper-aggressive pregnant assassin.

_**Air Defense Tower Four**_

"Note to self," she yelled as she returned fire down the hall, "Taking on an entire military facility on your own is fucking stupid and I HATE IT" With that she rose from cover throwing a pair of knives, they both found their marks and allowed her to scramble out into the open and grab an assault rifle, 'Oooh, G4, nice'. Scurrying back to cover she pointed her new rifle over her head and mashed the trigger down causing the group of soldiers to dive to the ground.

Taking advantage of the lull she was finally able to run in and get the troops in range of her geass, they looked around intently for their vanished opponent, after a moments inspection she proceeded to pull the pins on all the grenades she could see and a couple panicked seconds later the big booms cleared the room. Taking the blood stained key card from the guard captain she made her way to the elevator, pulling the last two items from her duffle bag, a pair of claymore mines, she set one in front of the elevator doors and then hit the key for the command center.

As the doors opened the guards took the anti-personnel mine to the face, pulling out Bob Saget she rushed out and slit the throats of four survivors with the shoto and then lept to cover. The rest of the soldiers rushed forward to figure out what the hell was going on when she jumped out slamming the last mine down and dove behind a bank of monitors, pulling the line the ball bearing ladened block of explosives shredded the lot of them. Standing up brushing her sleeves she nabbed the base commanders access card and took over the computers.

"Now my lovelies, its time to pick and choose our targets," Selecting several of the small French airships the raven haired killer couldn't help but mutter, "Ooo what does this button do" as she hit the 'Fire' key.

_**Air Battle Dreadnought**_

As the sole remaining defense tower started shredding apart E.U. airships Suzaku broke out laughing,

"Oh hell I owe that woman a foot rub, ok people we've officially fucked up all their plans time to get our birds in the air, move out!" With that the fleets interceptors and bombers launched and soon where followed by their Knightmare frame comrades. Getting the message Cornelia's forces launched from downriver and approached London from the south while Lelouch's fleet attacked form the north, juking to avoid the clouds of incoming flak Suzaku let loose a feral grin. Kallen and Nunnally formed up on his four and six while they sprayed an endless barrage of energy darts towards the approaching defenders to give Captain Lebeau's artillery unit and the Glaston Knights time to take position. As the Gareth's started their bombardment of the cities defenses the rest of the force not stuck babysitting dived down into the melee below, Kallen split off from the group charging a squadron of the new Panzer Wildschwein's who barely avoided one of her radiation pulses.

"Finally get to fight something new," she said as the agile units did their best to avoid her attacks, as one they fired their mono-lasers but the charge up delay was long enough that she was easily able to dodge. Confronting the squad leader he tried to block the Guren's claw with his shield but the mono-molecular sharpened blades sheared through it and its arm as if they were paper, swiping her MVB dagger across its chest the cockpit autoejected and the machine exploded. "Tough but not tough enough," with that she got to work clearing the skies of threats to her family.

Nunnally was actually a bit apprehensive for once, for reasons she couldn't quite comprehend leaving Timeo to fend for himself worried her which was just stupid the man literally shot the limbs off a Panzer Wildschwein while sing songing 'Alouette' at point blank range, he was more then capable of handling himself. Still...she was worried, as she cleaved through a pair of Wildschwein's trying to protect a group of Hummel's she charged through the explosions and killed the lot of them with a baryon blast, as she was about to lift off again an intense blue energy beam lanced through the sky and hit the hijacked defense tower dead center. Gasping as the beam punched through the shield and penetrated the tower Nunnally threw her throttle to full as she broke the sound barrier to rescue her big sister, glancing to her right she saw a red and green blur charging in the same direction.

_**Defense Tower Four**_

"Fuck fuck fuck FUCK! We're supposed to be the ones who fucking cheat not you cock mongerers! FUCK!" Luluka screamed as her tower took another hit, sprinting to the elevator she skidded to a halt as the power went out, a sinking feeling entered her stomach as she realized she was stuck. "No no no no no, I did not start growing this fucking tadpole from Hades just to have us die here! FUCK!" Screaming in rage she approached an outer wall and sprayed it with Problem Solver. The mini HEAT rounds tore divets into the concrete but did nothing to penetrate it, as the tower shook from another blast she fell to her knees and did something she hadn't done since the day her mother died, she cried. As the tears ran down her face she couldn't help but berate herself,

"Of fucking course you stupid self centered bitch, you had to volunteer, you haaaaad to be the one who went on the front line and risk your child because you're a badass bitch who can't be beaten...well look where that got you...murdered your own kid before they could even be born...fuck...I really need a smoke about now..." As the world started to lean towards the west a massive steel claw shot through the wall tearing a chunk from the reinforced concrete, as the debris fell away she saw the Guren retract its claw and the Valkyrie jam its metal shod fist through the hole. The fingers unfurled and Luluka rushed forward jumping into the war machines embrace, pulling its fist out Nunnally's frame bolted away from the collapsing tower as the Lancelot took one of the blue blasts directly to its shields, by the way they were sputtering he must have taken a few hits. As one the three elite units flew away from the collapsing tower and took cover in the street, as they landed her husbands cockpit opened and not even thinking about it she dove off the Valkyrie and landed in Suzaku's arms.

"You were fucking right babe...I need to take it easy for a couple more months...yer hellspawn needs to be kept safe." Nuzzling the top of her head with his tear stained face he smiled.

"Hey, look on the plus side, by the time we're ready to invade France you'll be ready to be the badass bitch that you were born to be." Laughing she sobbed out,

"Aw babe yer such a charmer...thanks...thanks for being there..."

**_Airship Dreadnought_**

As Lelouch traced the high energy blasts he locked in on a enormous airship, the thing must have been damn near six hundred meters long, a cylinder running the length of its spin was spitting out those infernal blue beams from a cone shaped emitter.

"FUCK!" C.C. screamed uncharacteristically as the Dreadnought took a shot directly to the shields knocking them down to 80% in one hit, "Lelouch that thing is going to kill us unless we take it out now!" Looking at the map he saw the only teams anywhere near the vessel were the Euro Turncoat Army, grimacing he ordered them to take the monstrous thing out. Pausing a moment and anticipating the fallout involved if a certain Gareth pilot perished he keyed in Nunnally and ordered her to escort them.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...best to avoid it altogether..."

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**The idea of Timeo singing a song about plucking the feathers from a lark while blasting the limbs off an eighth generation frame was actually what got him regulated to main character when I drew up his outline, after that I developed his character enough to realize that Nunnally could easily fall hard for someone like that so I changed his age to 18 and gave him a real back story. Honestly I'm kinda fond of him, I'm sure my German ancestors are rolling in their graves, heh.**


	34. Chapter 32

**Author Note-I personally find that my European characters occasionally slipping into their native tongues adds a bit of flavor to the story, if you guys think its annoying and ruins your immersion lemme know and I'll take it into consideration. Also Nunnally will be channeling a bit of Alucard today so enjoy, credit to Teamfourstar and Purplyeyeswtf over on youtube for a couple of the oneliners. As always please review!**

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_I wouldn't call the capture of the English Isles easy per say, more like we caught them completely off guard, they'd amassed troops in Russia and the idiot commander's actually ignored V.V.'s orders after the failed attempt to nuke us, something we didn't know until much later by the way, anyhow they ignored him and those are the forces that got F.L.E.I.J.A striked in Siberia and got Lloyd'd at the Forbidden City. So with reinforcements stretched across Eurasia not sure which direction to head the Isles were pretty much left to die on the vine until we hit London. London's defenses set the tone for what we were to expect when we hit the mainland though...we should have taken heed, its not like our little infiltration gambit could be repeated after the press got wind of it.**-Interview with Lord General Suzaku Kururugi circa 2031**_

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_**En route to European Air Battleship**_

Receiving her orders to take out the approaching airship Isabella ordered her three squadrons of Vincents forward, as they spread into formation Timeo's unit of Gareth's formed up into firing positions on their six, zooming her factspheres in on the ship as it came into range she snarled to herself.

"Usted ha conseguido ser una broma... finished the Chimera finally I see, dammit..." The vessel before them was actually a hodgepodge of four navel battleship hulls, one ships aft married to another's forming a sort of pontoon, the set of hulls then had dozen's of support structures connecting them to a twin pontoon. This structure was designed to house the worlds first fully functional long distance plasma cannon which ran the entire length of the ship dangling below and in between the double hulls. Dotting all available surfaces were back up float units, MAC emplacements and countless nests of CIWS, while formidable in its own right it was made exponentially tougher with its new fully functional blaze luminous shielding.

"Jo det är bara härligt," her wing man muttered, their were echoed agreements across the channel, everyone knew what they were about to get into, sighing she signaled,

"Ok people we're running the gauntlet, Timeo your lads are to bombard quadrant three as fast as your cannons cycle, those shields are still new and there's a good chance focused fire can burn out an emitter, Joakim take squad two and run interference for any panzer's that try to harass them, everyone else set your VARIS to maximum charge when that thing drops the shield in front of the cannon we'll have roughly two seconds to get a shot in, good hunting people." And with that her irregular unit charged headfirst into the oncoming fire, never slowing down the three dozen Vincent variants danced in the sky weaving their way forward. Grinning she saw dozens of fully charged hadron beams hit a single shield panel on the starboard side, while it held it changed from deep amber to a sickly watery yellow.

"Keep it up boys, don't le-oh l'enfer, des manœuvres d'évitement!" Timeo yelled as a white and blue knightmare charged his formation, it cleaved two Gareth's in half with a large broadsword then killed five Vincent's with rapid shots from a laser rifle. Timeo fired his Gareth's missiles and slash harkens at it ordering his men to do that same, the deluge of explosive's made the almost feminine frame break its attack for the moment.

"Oh crap, finished that too" was all that was said as they finally got a look at the hovering unit, its thin form a firm departure from the typical Panzer frames, as it turned to face Timeo the decorative blue hair hanging from underneath the renaissance style helm swayed in the wind. The Schwalbe lazily raised its rifle and shot down another Vincent as a tittering voice came across the open channel,

"Hehehe, so I get to finally meet the infamous Euro Turncoats, I have no idea why you traitors joined the Imperialists but it matters not, I vill be your executioner today so please do your best to make this interesting." With that Colonel Hilde Richthofen, the Hellcat of Germany charged forward and impaled another Gareth, this pilot was fortunate enough to eject but his luck ran out as the pod ran directly into the flak fire. Groaning at the loss of so many of her subordiantes Isabella charged in to attempt and hold the ace unit off.

"Away from my men harlot," She snarled holstering her rifle and drawing both her double headed spear and MVB rapier, twirling both weapons expertly she charged the Schwalbe blocking a blow meant to bisect another Gareth.

"Oh der Kopf verräter, gut gut! Danke for saving me the trouble of sifting through the vrecks of your battalion, it would have been quite tedious." Parrying the sword with her rapier Isabella threw the spear underhanded destroying the German's rifle, the reaction was...surprising. "Hehehe, gut gut gut! Finally a real challenge!"

"...Joder..." Isabella mumbled as the Schwalbe took its broadsword in both hands charging forward, the rain of blows was impossible to follow, the high speed ace frame was slowly widdeling away the Vincents armor, its shield and rapier beginning to buckle from the onslaught. An unlucky glancing blow managed to skip past the blaze luminous and shear off her left arm, attempting to pull back she realized she was about to die.

"Oh vell, maybe I'll find someone more entertaining, wir sehen uns in Walhalla fräulin Generaloberst." As the broadsword was about to impale her Vincent the massive form of a Gareth was in front of her, its crab claw grabbing the falling blade and firing its hadron, the limb and sword both exploded as Timeo fired the last of his missiles at the temporarily stunned ace.

"RUN! I'll hold her off ma'am!" With that the damaged Gareth charged forward snapping its remaining hand open he fired rapid shots at the now evasive Schwalbe as Isabella screamed for him to retreat. As the German unit recovered it drew its two remaining swords from its hips and closed the distance, cleaving off his good arm the snarling ace slashed downwards toward the Gareth's chest. A flash of blue came to a screaming halt in front of the Schwalbe as a tri-bladed spear caught both descending blades, the Valkyrie hovered in front of Timeo, its angelic wings pulsing with bleeding sapphire energy.

"Hi there, he happens to be mine," Everyone who knew the young woman shivered unbidden at the complete lack of emotion in her voice.

Snapping out of it Hilde glanced back at the battleship and blinked nonplussed, the remaining Gareth's had continued their bombardment despite the shark in their midst and had actually managed to take out the shield panel, as it was fluctuating the remaining forces stormed in and started shredding the weapon emplacements.

"Vell, scheiße, mission failure, oh vell little girl we'll dance later," As the Schwalbe tried to fly off the Valkyrie sprayed energy darts in its path stalling her escape.

"I did not give you permission to leave," Nunnally deadpanned as she spun Gungnir and charged the ace.

_**Skies above London**_

Kallen watched as the E.U. airship's main gun came apart in the distance, it was starting to list to one side but it seemed to be throwing all power into its engines to make a break for it, 'Might actually make it too' she mused, 'Damn thing looks like it has more redundancies then anything we've got'. Focusing her attention back to her own struggles she landed in the midst of another group of panzers, slashing them apart she sighed as she commed Suzaku,

"Hey Suzu?" There was a brief pause then a,

"Hi Kallen, whats up?" Sighing she said,

"I'm...god this sounds stupid, but I'm bored," There was a brief pause then a snorted laugh, after a moment he sighed in return.

"You ever take a step back and look where we are? I mean we're invading a sovereign nation in the name of an Empire we fought to destroy for nearly half our lives and while we're ravaging the capitals last defenders we're bored with it all." Shaking her head ruefully Luluka piped in,

"All for the plan, I just...man when you break it down like that this shit is truly insane, the entire reason any of this happened was my uncle being a petty, obsessive, and vindictive little bastard, makes you wonder." Nodding at this Kallen found herself in Trafalgar Square, the Europeans had done a good job keeping this part of the city intact, it was quite beautiful and very little damage had been done to it during the fighting. Rolling the Guren towards the Knightmare height bronze statue of Napoleon Kallen cocked her head at it,

"You know I've always wanted to find out if my radiation burst actually made everything explode or if its just Knightmare's cooking off, think anyone would mind if I tried it on this guy?" Suzaku chuckled and said go for it, unbeknownst to either pilots the Guren was currently being filmed, in an act that would endear the Empress in waiting to Britannians over night and vilify her to the citizens of the E.U. the clawed right hand grasped the statues face and sent a wave of radiation through it. The bronze bubbled and deformed briefly then the entire thing exploded in a fireball sending debris scattering, with molten metal dripping from the claw Kallen looked at it inquisitively. "Why DOES this thing make stuff explode? I mean really it doesn't make sense." Suzaku's image shrugged,

"You're a multibillionaire industrialist flying a giant fighting robot who is currently sleeping with the crown prince and an ancient immortal all while living in a floating castle in the sky, sometimes Kallen I find it best to not ask questions." Considering that as she shook the Guren's hand clean and lifting back into the sky she eventually nodded.

"Yeah good point, well lets go find out where Lelouch wants to send us next this places defenses have gone to hell with the destruction of those towers I sincerely doubt this will take much longer."

_**Collecting the Reaper's toll**_

Nunnally parried a thrust from the Schwalbe, as she countered the locked blades went flying from the German units hands and with a lazy flourish Nunnally smashed it in the face with the butt of Gungnir, flicked a switch she hadn't gotten to try yet the needle blazer in its base fired taking the knightmares head off.

"Sie betrügt hündin!" The ace screamed, charging past the Valkyrie Hilde pounced on a Vincent tearing its rifle and spear from its hands, spinning as she cleaved the unit in half she managed to catch the next attack in time to counter. "I am Colonel Hilde Richthofen and I demand your respect!" Finally letting some emotion back into her voice Nunnally replied,

"No, you demand my attention," her tone sounding bored as she avoided the VARIS shots, getting in close she managed to avoid the thrust from the Schwalbe and cleaved both its legs off, screaming in frustration the enemy ace spun around and shot Timeo's Gareth in the air glide system. Snickering she quipped,

"Finish me and let your little boyfriend die," growling Nunnally dove after the fallen giant,

"You're sooo totes paying for that one bitch," Firing a baryon shot over her shoulder at the fleeing unit Nunnally fired her slash harkens at the free falling Gareth, able to slow their descent enough to not kill them they touched down hard. Popping her cockpit open the concerned teen scrambled up Timeo's damaged war machine and hit the manual release, the back hatch fell away and the handsome mans chair rolled out and locked into place, 'One Frenchman in a can, yes thank you please.' Checking his pulse she managed to rouse him, flickering his grey eyes open he smiled at her wanly,

"I must admit mon chéri I never expected to be the damsel in distress," sobbing out a laugh she hugged him tight,

"Don't worry you'll get use to it."

_**Air Battleship Dreadnought**_

Sighing in relief at seeing the damaged enemy ship attempting to escape at flank speed C.C. leaned against Lelouch letting the tension flow out for the first time that day, she couldn't die, but he could...and that wasn't acceptable. Nodding at what he was seeing he ordered all units to break off pursuit and begin recovery of their fallen, Cornelia's forces had already occupied much of the city and following their standard combat doctrine the majority of the metropolis was left unharmed. Clicking the fleet wide broadcast Lelouch announced,

"Job well done I'd say, ok people you know the drill, damage reports and then repairs, once we've gotten the confirmed surrender from whoever is currently in charge we'll begin deploying the ground troops, well done everyone." With that he fell into his chair and let out a ragged sigh, sifting through channels she realized he stopped on Kallen and Suzaku's private line, not saying anything he just smiled listening to their banter comfortable in the knowledge they were ok. "This war may very well cost me everything C.C. but for today...the losses were not in vain..." Looking across the vast city before him his brow furrowed a bit, "Now who the hell am I putting in charge of this place?"

_**Pendragon, Emperors Office**_

Charles was dozing off in his chair when his terminal started beeping loudly, snapping out of it he said,

"I was totally not just sleeping!...Eh?" Staring down at the blocked number he shrugged, worse case scenario it was a telemarketer and he could completely screw with their day, hitting accept the last person in the world he expected to see was staring back at him.

"Hello little brother," gritting his teeth he glared at his twin,

"Hello V.V., what do I owe the pleasure?" The man child gave Charles that condescending little laugh he despised so much,

"Oh I just wanted to tell you to enjoy the early Christmas present I prepared for you, the English isles are quiet beautiful from what I'm told...well sometimes anyhow, I hear they are also very damp." Raising an eyebrow incredulously Charles responded with,

"Do you honestly have the audacity to claim every single one of your colossal strategic fuckups and over reliance on convoluted plots is responsible for my kids kicking the E.U. off the Mother Isles in less then a month?" Frowning at his younger brother V.V. seethed,

"Of COURSE! That whores brat could never out maneuver me," Seeing where this was going Charles sighed and grabbed a bottle from his desk, he was going to need it.

"Vivictis, cut the crap, after you murdered my wife you made it your life's goal to kill our offspring out of childish spite because to be blunt, you never stopped being a child, you're a sixty year old brat who never experienced what life had to offer." As he was saying this Charles had poured a generous glass of green liquor and downed it in one pull, the immortal on his screen going red with rage.

"You know the funny thing big brother? Without you constantly harping on me to be obsessed with Ragnarok, and especially not dealing with the fact that I had to pretend I didn't know you murdered the only woman I ever loved I've discovered something that had been in front of my face the entire time." Trying to calm his rage the diminutive little man replied,

"And what is that Charles," grinning as he topped off another glass he let out a small laugh,

"I thoroughly enjoy being a father, did you know that Odysseus is a sculptor? I had no clue, wasn't until I made it a point to talk to him for a few hours that I find out he didn't even WANT to be crown prince and held no grudge against Lelouch. You know what I got for Christmas last year? A bust of myself made by him, and I'm _smiling_, you know how many art pieces there are of me smiling? One, the note on the base was 'Thank you for finally getting to know me father', and you know what? That hurt and at the time I didn't know why" The entire time he said this V.V. was getting more furious,

"And Cornelia, holy hell that woman has a dry wit, we've had drinks together a couple times and she can be so hilariously scathing I've had to take notes, little Euphemia who everyone assumes is a frail flower literally killed an entire hit squad while bleeding out from her stomach, a hit squad you sent may I add, and hell even Schneizal is fun to talk to. All that I needed to get along with him was for Lelouch to curb his desire for the throne, that man can play a mean bass guitar by the way, I didn't know that before you left either." Grinning fully at his brother Charles finished with,

"And of course my wondrous children from my murdered wife, Lelouch and Luluka, a set of strategic smart asses who are like mirrors of their mother...well ok Marianne never crashed a knightmare into a dumpster and tripped it into a bakery but still. And of course my favorite my little Nunnally, the only one of my children who gave me a chance when she didn't have to, the one who started the ball rolling on me finding life after Ragnarok."

"I see-" Charles interrupted him

"You really don't, my partner in trying to create a world without lies was the biggest liar of them all, you took something wonderful from me out of jealous spite because you have the mentality of a child and the vindictiveness of an old man. I'm done with you Vivictis, my children are creating a world that will be unified under equality and science, I've seen Lelouch's plans and while overly idealistic I think they might actually work. When he finds you in whatever hole you're hiding in remember the only reason he is even there is because you struck first, good bye, oh and Merry Christmas.

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**The segment with Kallen and Suzaku was something that hit me a week or two ago, without each other mucking up the other sides plans they literally have no real challenges, they were the others foil. So what happens when two super aces are on the same side? They get deathly bored with fighting cannon fodder and start dicking around looking for something interesting to do.**

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Usted ha conseguido ser una broma-You have gotta be kidding me

Jo det är bara härligt-Well that's just lovely

oh l'enfer, des manœuvres d'évitement-oh hell, evasive maneuvers

Oh der Kopf verräter, gut gut!-Oh the head traitor, good good!

Joder-Fuck

wir sehen uns in Walhalla fräulin Generaloberst-See you in Valhalla madam general

scheiße-Shit

Sie betrügt hündin-You cheating bitch


	35. Chapter 33

**The next two chapters will lack action since we're doing a bit of world building and character development, I'll make up for it with some ensuing hijinks, I'm more then looking forward to writing the chaos that is the Royal Family Christmas party, and considering who the new Viceroy of England's granddaughter is...**

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_**Pendragon, Imperial Palace December 8, 2019 A.T.B.**_

Charles was fully sober, this grated on him like nothing else, he didn't suffer from withdrawal like an addict would, no no he was just annoyed because he happened to thoroughly enjoy watching the world through a haze. Sadly what he needed to do right now required clarity and the people he needed to address demanded respect, its not like he was dealing with nobility here, these were real people, as he reached the ornate door he had been approaching he hesitated. Everything hinged on their approval and while they had given tacit support two years ago things change, sighing he unlocked the door and made his way inside the suite of rooms, knocking on the door he announced himself, his bass voice causing the windows to vibrate.

"It is I Charles, may I enter elders?" There was a pause when a booming laugh responded,

"Charles! Come on in young man come in!" Smiling slightly the Emperor let himself inside and observed four people, an elderly Chinese woman was busily playing an old school Gameboy, if the music was any indicator it was Tetris, beside her a young dark skinned woman was carefully painting her companion in shocking clarity upon a canvas. On the other side of the room sat an eldery middle eastern man with a belly length beard and a younger brunette Britannian both watching the news, the honey brown skinned elder grinned vividly towards Charles while he pointed at the television. "My my my young man Marianne's little ones have been busy, taking the English isles back in less then a month with fewer then five thousand civilian casualties across the board? I'd call bullshit if you didn't give us access to the military reports!" Smiling Charles bowed to the older man,

"Esteemed elder, err right, Barbados, I have a...request of you and your friends," With that the two women stopped what they were doing and moved to sit next to their companions. Charles cleared his throat and continued, "I and a large majority of the royal family will be meeting the vi Britannia's in London for our annual Christmas ball in the coming weeks, Lelouch and his kin have all but repaired the isles at this point and we're to have the festivities in the former Governors palace. I'd like you four to go and evaluate them, decide if they deserve your gifts without my influence, you are all far more experienced then I and less...biased." The ebony skinned teen smiled dazzlingly at Charles responding with a thick Nigerian accent,

"Charles so formal, that's what I love about you, giving respect to those you feel earned it...of course we'll go, I assume you have covers for us?" Nodding he smirked at her,

"Of course Adebola, I always have a plan, you're all an international diplomatic corps put together as the result of my son making all peoples of the Empire equals, you'll be discussing the future direction of our country with them and you'll be able to evaluate them by their responses." The Chinese woman busted out laughing and spoke in perfect high Britannian,

"Hear that Dudley? We're to be proper foreigners! Hehe, oki Chuck I'm in," With that the final member of the group joined her laughter,

"Oh indeed Zhenzhen, this should be interesting!" Glancing over to Barbados raising his eyebrows questioningly, the older man broke out into another laugh as he nodded to Charles,

"Oh Allah knows we need to get out for awhile, and meeting the children that changed your entire world view would be marvelous! I of course agree, when do we leave?" Charles grinned at his long time companions and replied,

"In two weeks, and I warn you my daughter in law informed me that the former governors palace is...heh...as she put it 'Preposterously ostentatious and dick compensating', so don't judge them on it." With that Adebola burst out laughing as she started going through her closet of dresses,

"Oh this child I must meet!"

_**December 12, 2019 A.T.B.**_

Erwin was seething, his coffee had long gone cold as he leafed through the reports scattered on their table, Chloe sitting across from him sharing his mood, as she read the summary for the battle of London a chill ran up her spine, whether from the snow outside the cafe or the projected losses she couldn't say. Eventually her compatriot dropped the papers and rubbed his temples,

"Ve lost the English Isles in less then a month, a _month_ Chloe,and now the damn Britannians have just been sitting off the coast of France outside of bombardment range for two veeks doing nothing, vhy?! Vhy lose their momentum? None of this makes sense!" Shaking her head sadly she took a sip from her lukewarm drink,

"From what I've gathered the Royal family has spent every spare moment repairing the damage they'd done in the invasion, they're saying London will be fully self sustaining again before Christmas, they're dumping all their reserves into reconstruction. It's like they don't care to continue this conflict." With that they both brooded in silence when a young man in blue jeans and a leather jacket sat at their table uninvited. His shoulder length black hair was hanging in his face and they could barely see the hints of violet irises as he flagged down a waitress ordering a cup tea.

"Earl grey, yes thank you young miss," The mans voice was refined with a faint Britannian accent, turning to the confused General's he smiled politely, "That's because I never wanted this conflict to begin with, England was snap retribution for your government attacking my sister, plus it was ours to begin with so I felt no real compunctions against taking it back, the rest of the invasion will require...finesse." Gasping Erwin muttered,

"Gott, der Schwarze Prinz," grimacing the young man pulled his hair behind his ears and looked at the Field Marshall cockeyed,

"People are still calling me that? Ugh...better then the other names I guess... anyway I'm pleased to finally meet you two, and before you decide to do something stupid please recall that if I wanted you dead I wouldn't have dropped Freyja's on my brothers, I'm here to talk, nothing more." Chloe hissed out a slow breath as she closed her eyes, calming her heart rate she opened them again then nodded towards their enemy. Erwin finally pulled himself from his stupor and said,

"Ok...ok, Vhat is it you wanted to discuss," Lelouch grinned brilliantly at them as he pulled a folder out from under his jacket,

"Ah Isabella spoke so highly of you two, I'm glad your former teachers faith wasn't misplaced," he said as he started pulling photos and documents out, Erwin and Chloe exchanged confused glances, not being able to keep her peace Chloe asked,

"Isabella? As in _General_ Isabella Santiago? The woman you killed in China months ago?" The prince stopped for a moment sighing to himself then continued to organize his papers.

"So that's what they told you eh? Figures, odd a frontline soldier knew who she was but you two don't...hmm...interesting, but no no Isabella is one of my finest commanders, her battalion was integral in retaking the Mother Isles, its amazing how motivated soldiers are to fight their former masters when they were used as bait on top of a nuclear bomb." Eyes bugging out of his head Erwin gasped out,

"Our...our teacher joined you!?" Lelouch glanced at the redhead then back to Chloe,

"Does he always restate what he's been told?" Unable to help herself she smiled and said yes, shaking his head Lelouch elaborated. "Ok getting a bit ahead of ourselves here but long short, a strike team was sent to nab the former leader of China to ransom her, someone in your parliament apparently thought terrorist actions are fine so long as its to help acquire campaign funds. Anyway they'd been given orders by a subversive element in your leadership to murder my little sister to draw me in, General Santiago was then ordered to surround the city and act as bait to bring my forces close enough to eat an EMP from a nuke causing us to crash and burn and kill all of 'Bella's troops. She took exception this, may I continue now?" Nodding numbly the pair silently processed this.

"Anyway, I'm giving you two a heads up, this subversive element is this man here, goes by V.V." Showing them a photo of an effeminate boy with floor length blonde hair Erwin snorted derisively.

"Really, a child? Ve're supposed-" Lelouch cut him off tersely,

"I really don't want to spend anymore time going over this shit can you please just let me finish?" Looking vexed Erwin mumbled obscenities in German while the prince continued,

"Anyway, this little bastard has been trying to knock my family off for the better part of two decades, he's the Emperors immortal twin brother and has one _heeeeeell _of a fixation issue, murdered my mom because she took too much of his brothers time and the animosity spread to her kids. And yes I said immortal just bear with me while I explain the rest of this crap I'm getting bored." Pulling out a stack of documents he handed them to Chloe,

"Now here is a list of all the actions he's made through your President since he made a pact with the man, you'll notice that your parliaments insane decision making and micromanaging of military operations started at the same time. We've been drawn into a world war over one psychotic with sharing issues and your President's desire to get re-elected indefinitely, democracy isn't it grand? The pact V.V. made with the President granted him something called a Geass, its a power that has absolute control over a portion of the human psyche, thankfully the source of this power is damaged at the moment so he got a diet cola version. As far as I can tell it persuades people to look at things the presidents way, fortunately the more the person disagrees with him the less likely they are to follow through with orders, hence why 'Bella joined me, strong will and all that."

As they were both about to yell bullshit the prince flicked a switch on his necklace and his eyes glowed red, staring at them both he said,

"You both are now my slaves," With that they sat up strait and muttered

"Yes your highness," nodding he looked at Chloe handing her a pendant similar to the one he wore, doing the same to Erwin he then continued with,

"Now the both of you are to put those pendants on and activate them." Following the orders they flicked the switches at once and both gasped in horror as they slumped in their chairs goggling at the fiery eyed demon before them. "Now, those necklaces are Geass inhibitors, basically they constantly reset your connection to the collective unconsciousness removing any and all Geass commands, you're now immune to the effects, Merry Christmas."

With that prince stood while flicking the switch on his inhibitor, turning to leave he glanced back at the couple "This was a gift from Isabella, we may remain enemies or we may become allies, but she wished for her two favorite students to be able to make the decision for themselves, and as a show of respect I'll give you one small tidbit, I will not be moving on Europe for a year, good day." And with that the Black Prince walked out of the cafe, never once touching his tea.

"We...well...I..." Chloe muttered trying to cope with the horrible feeling of subservience she had experienced for a brief few seconds, the horror of what could have been stunning her, Erwin stood and moved his chair next to her so they could hold each other, rocking his girlfriend gently he muttered,

"So...vho...vho is the enemy I don't...love vhat do ve do?" At the moment, she didn't have an answer.

As Lelouch made his way outside his brother kicked off the wall his eyes glowing red, glancing over to Suzaku he grinned,

"So Suzu what are we today?" Grinning the Japanese man twirled his hand lightly,

"Two elderly woman rambling about how their kids never visit them, we'll make it back to the Gawain with no troubles Lou, so how did they take it?" Snorting the raven haired man grinned back at his best friend,

"Fucking shell shocked, I could see the realization hitting their faces but Rommel is Prussian to the core if I stuck around the 'Crush all those that defy me' impulse would kick in, I have no idea if they'll join us but after what I did to them they'll never take those inhibitors off." Nodding as they weaved their way through traffic Suzaku sighed lightly,

"Paris is beautiful brother, gods I hope we don't have to hurt these people to get rid of that cancer." Nodding as they approached the hidden Gawain Lelouch replied,

"Me too Suzu...me too...well come on we have to help Kallen and Luluka prepare that eyesore palace for the party and if nothing else we're pulling those goddamn frescoes down before Euphemia shows up...seriously how-" Suzaku interrupted him as the Gawain's cockpit opened,

"The less we talk about the painted horse dicks the better man, come on lets get out of here.

_**London, English Isles December 20 2019 A.T.B.**_

Nunnally was wrapped around Timeo as they watched cartoons on the warships main monitor, curled together on the couch normally reserved for Kallen and C.C., looking down at the little brunette he curiously asked,

"Nunnally...do you ever feel fear?" The small teen in his arms tensed a moment, relaxing she said,

"You know how despite being kicked off the isles for a couple centuries we had a massive nautical empire for damn near two thousand years?" Nodding to her the woman continued, "Well our culture really didn't change, a lot of our allegories and the like stayed ocean themed and the way I always looked at it was this. Not since I was seven have I known what living without fear is like, I'm a tiny life raft left in the open sea with no hope for rescue, my water has long run out and the temptation to drink from limitless poison is near absolute. But I don't, the water is fear and drinking it would be totes succumbing to it...I don't feel fear hon, I _live_ in it." Looking down at the woman he felt tears forming as he held her a little closer,

"Well...I hope I'm a calm in your storm dear one." Chuckling lightly she turned her head enough to make eye contact,

"Babe...there's a reason I'm always near you." Sighing contentedly the small sociopath settled back into watching the TV while her boyfriend contemplated how life had brought him here.

_**Governors Palace London England December 22 2019 A.T.B.**_

"Horse dicks everywhere!" Milly Ashford screamed in horror, she stared at the half destroyed paintings leaning against the wall while Kallen rubbed her temples sighing,

"Tell me about it, you know we don't even know what the creepy fuckers name was? We just took this opulate place and found zoological porn painted on _EVERYTHING_, Lelouch is freaked out we missed something behind a cabinet door and I'm completely with him, I'm really hoping the rest of the E.U. isn't like this because frankly its going to get awkward." The blonde pervert's look of consternation hadn't left her face as she smashed another hidden frescoe with a hammer,

"Seriously when Lulu told me that granddads new palace had some issues I had no goddamn clue that fucking beastiality was the problem, holy hell!" Her boyfriend laughed lightly as he picked up the destroyed fragments of plaster, Rivalz turned to Shirley who was busily marking cut points on the replacement drywall and said,

"Hey make it 6'3", just to be safe, seriously why doesn't Lou have real carpenters doing this crap?" Rolling her eye as she made the adjustments Shirley grunted out,

"Because he can actually rely on us and he knows we're on winter break from University so we can't say no, now hurry up and clear that stuff so we can get this going, the royal family will be here in two days Rivalz, no slacking!." Sighing the bluenette went back to demolition cleanup as a grinning Milly went apeshit on the creepy walls.

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**To sound like a complete sissy sometimes when I put myself in Nunnally's mind and what she's endured it kinda makes me wanna cry a bit. On bringing back the student council I need people the family sees as equals to be the foil to the coming insanity that is the royal family Christmas party, revel in the Chaos God's presence!**


	36. Chapter 34 A very Nunnally Christmas

**Authors note-I hate hate hate transition chapters, was reading last chapter as boring for you guys to read as it was for me to write? Why the whole horse dick thing got thrown in there I needed SOMETHING to laugh at, not to mention sad** Nunnally and sober Charles were boring to write and its never happening again, I don't care if plot demands it I'll cheat my way through it somehow. **Anyway this is a mixture of future world building and shenanigans, as to why the family is divulging this info freely Charles told them that his associates were already privy to it, I really didn't want to write two thousand words about suspicions and all that when I wanted hilarity to ensue. **

**On a note about the horse dick thing, this happened to me while traveling through Pittsburgh, drove by an old ramshackle building that was being gutted and apparently a Dothraki use to live there because all the paintings and furniture where of horses doing their thing to err...not horses. Anyway Milly's reaction was a direct quote from me at the time. **

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_**Honestly that was way more hilarious then I anticipated-Emperor Charles zi Britannia, day after Christmas**_

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_**Governor's Palace English Isles December 24, 2019 A.T.B.**_

Kallen and Luluka where both suffering from the same horrific realization, their corsets did not fit, while normal pregnant woman might frown at this the two professional killers were for all intents and purposes livid.

"Absolute BULLSHIT! Seriously I become a fucking meatbag factory for nine months and I can't wear a fucking thing that looks remotely cute! FUCK!" Kallen stomped away from the mirror while her sister in law nodded in both agreement and approval of her language usage.

"Tell me about it, this is horsesh...errr...nevermind less said about horses the better, this is simply crap, I mean holy hell this is the first time we get to show off to the family annnnnd we're on our way to being whales," a giggle behind them announced their little sisters presence, turning around they saw the young woman swaying back and forth with a baseball bat held behind her back. The surprising part was the way she was dressed, torn stockings, combat boots, plaid skirt, Iron Maiden t-shirt and elbow length fingerless gloves, her hair was done up in high pigtails held with red ribbons, oh not to mention about two dozen nose and earings.

"Well shit babe you look punk as fuck," Luluka quipped, grinning back at her sisters Nunnally simply nodded,

"Yuppers! Last night Timeo told me to dress cute he was gonna take me clubbing, first time I've been out since we left Tokyo, was totes fun." Kallen smirked at her while motioning behind Nunnally's back,

"Annnnd the bat?" Blushing slightly she brought the dented aluminum bat out from behind her back while shyly replying,

"I may or may not have misinterpreted the meaning behind the word 'Clubbing', I'd rather not discuss it any further..." Luluko just nodded sagely while asking,

"And the bloody hair on said bat?" Her feral grin returned as she hopped up and down happily,

"Clubbing happened, when they found out I was sixteen (incidentally _after_ I paid for my drink, jerks) they kicked us out, some balding middle age mother fucker grabbed my butt and said he could errr..."Do romping with a sex kitten," Timeo throat jabbed him then I cracked his skull open, by the way my boyfriend is adorkably protective." Shaking her head Kallen sighed out,

"Is the perv dead?" Looking confused for a second Nunnally cocked her head to the side and asked,

"What answer would get me in less trouble?" Rubbing her temples the redhead just turned back to the mirror trying to adjust her ball gown,

"So was Timeo dressed the same?" Glancing at the mirror she saw Nunnally make a swooning motion,

"No he totes went AC/DC and dressed in a schoolboy outfit with his hair gelled up into a mohawk...I'm going to kill Lelouch for swearing Timeo into celibacy by the way, the hypocrisy is astounding." Luluka broke out laughing at that while she was searching the dresser drawers for a pack of smokes to no avail,

"Why the fact he'd been fucking since he was fifteen or that he's sleeping with someone eight hundred eightyone years his senior?" Nunnally snorted while twirling a finger in the air,

"Pick one, anyway what evs I get to have fun with the family seeing me like this tomorrow, thinking about wearing my pink vest with my angel crest on it too, it'll be super awkward dad'll love it." The older women exchanged glances then shrugged, technically Nunnally _had_ captured the place, she could do what she wanted, plus it might be funny.

_**Air Battleship Dreadnought**_

"You can't make me leave," the crown prince yelled as he hid behind his bed rifle in hand, Suzaku sighed at his brother as he contemplated how to disarm the frantic royal.

"Lou it can't be that bad, look Millicent's only been here a couple days the idea she has some how arranged some hideously embarrassing event is-" screaming Lelouch interrupted,

"COMPLETELY BELIEVABLE AND YOU FUCKING KNOW IT!" Sighing Suzaku leaned against the wall shaking his head,

"Lou...her grandpa's becoming Viceroy, do you honestly think she'd endanger _his_ reputation for her own amusement?" Lelouch's hyperventilating slowed down and he took a deep breath, letting it out he stood up and clicked the rifles safety.

"Thanks Suzu...just with everything happening the idea of dealing with her crap again after two years..." Slapping the other man on the back cheerfully Suzaku grinned while saying,

"Don't worry man, Gino and Anya just got back, why don't we go get tanked with them while watching Princess Bride again?" Nodding Lelouch mumbled how that was a good idea and followed Suzaku out of the room.

_**Christmas Day, Governor's Palace ball room**_

Charles was on edge, his former conspirators turned potential long term allies had just arrived and split off to interview their targets, he had faith in the kids but this was a big deal, grumbling to himself about the crap wine he hadn't noticed Nunnally popping up beside him until she pecked him on the cheek.

"Hey sweetie! Hows it going! How did the fight for London go? Oh is this your boyfriend?" Looking to the blonde boy next to Nunnally the Emperor gave him a once over 'tall, handsome, braided ponytail, military dress uniform, armed to the teeth...yeah ok he'll do.' Marieanne laughed at this, god it was good to have her back even if he still felt like a creeper when she conversed with him in that body.

"Heyya daddy! I'm doing great I already gave Guinevere's mom a panic attack with my outfit, hilarious, and I totally kicked the shit out of a kraut super ace, she totes didn't see that coming, and yeah this is Timeo Lebeau, he's not allowed to touch me or Lelouch will melt his brain, its bullshit, so how are you?" Laughing at the answers and the now blushing boy Charles shrugged,

"Meh, little too sober for my liking, honestly these gatherings are so dry, my only enjoyment is watching Lelouch squirm while half his sisters try to get into his pants, it'd be hilarious if it wasn't so errr..." Timeo finished for him,

"Incestilicous?" Breaking out into a fit of laughs Charles nodded,

"Yes that, I know our family tree has some...ahem...knots in it but the amount of attention he's getting is kind of creepy...ah well." Nunnally was still beaming a smile at her dad when she swung a package out from behind her back, taking the brown paper wrapped parcel he quirked an eyebrow. "What this little one?" Hopping up and down clapping she squee'd,

"So the former governor totes surrendered this place to me, like its completely mine until I give it to Ruben, so we went exploring for some place to snog without getting caught when we found a booze cellar, check it out pops." Now very curious Charles unwrapped the package to find an ancient bottle in his hands, the green liquid inside sloshed a bit while Charles read the label, eyes widening he gasped,

"This...this is 1813 Pernod Absinthe! This...this..." Nunnally cackled and finished

"Is two hundred year old liquor from a period of time before they regulated the amount of thujone allowed for human consumption, its psychodellic booze daddy." Tears forming at the corner of his eyes he glanced at his favored daughter,

"How many?" She held up six fingers while snickering,

"Six cases, twelve bottles a case," Looking at the bottle in shock he ordered three glasses, a pitcher of water and three sugar cubes. Mixing the drinks he toasted the young couple and they downed their glasses, after a few minutes Nunnally was staring at the ceiling and quipped, "Funny, I never taught the Valkyrie how to do the Macarena on the ceiling." Timeo nodded while glancing at his girlfriend,

"So it ends up yellow tastes like pecans...who knew?" Charles snapped into clarity long enough to ask,

"Are the other bottles in the kitchen?!" Nunnally nodded, grinning he said "The punch hasn't been served yet...little one how much do you enjoy chaos?" Before he knew it both teenagers where pulling him up and the three of them sprinted unnoticed to induce change upon static boredom.

_**On the Floor**_

Lelouch was doing his best to mingle with his family and avoid getting hit on, something he thought wouldn't be an issue in the modern world, to be blunt he was freaking out a bit. Finally managing to separate himself from another group of incestuous sycophants he grabbed a beer from the cooler and downed it, hearing a giggle behind him he swung around and found himself facing the voluptuous form of his sister Maribelle. Shaking her head sadly she lithely walked up to him and leaned against the table,

"My my my, little Lelouch having to beat off the gnats to maintain his virtue...how ya do'in Black Prince?" Grinning at his third favorite half sister he replied,

"Oh you know pinky, starting rebellions, staying under the radar...avoiding family trying to screw me senseless...seriously I'm expecting banjos at this point." Busting out in laugher her outfit did nothing to hide her shaking chest, 'damn maybe I am messed up...'

"Hehe...anyway I just wanted to thank ya kindly, your tip off about the Garcia's was spot on, stopped a rebellion before it started, anyway I'm gonna go and tease Nelly about her boyfriends, toodles bro." As she sauntered off he heard a deep chuckle behind him, turning he found himself facing a middle eastern man with an incredibly impressive beard.

" That woman has it so hard for you its terrifying." Deciding not to fuel the fire by being indignant he turned away and muttered,

"How do you figure?" The older man guffawed again, collecting himself he turned towards the Prince,

"Well lemme think, shes the head of Britannia's Counter Insurgency Unit, you where the head of a rebellion that stood toe to toe with the Empire and you where both so damn good at your jobs neither knew the other existed. Hmm...you're considered the sexiest man alive by the tabloids, you're a strategic genius that just retook the mother isles and you're known for polygamy...yeah...yeah she totally wants to fuck your brains out sister or not, does this creep you a bit?" Too exhausted by the unending cycle of insanity that was his existance Lelouch dropped his head,

"The terrifying thing at this point? No, its been like this for over a year now and I doubt it will stop anytime soon, I have to just grin and bear it...ugh." The man bowed to him while chuckling again,

"Names Barbados, I and my compatriots are old friends of your father, he put us together as a diplomatic corps to cope with all your interesting little changes." Smiling Lelouch returned the bow as he grabbed another beer and downed it in seconds, Barbados cocked his head lightly at this. "I thought all you royals couldn't get drunk off those, your implants metabolism burned it up too fast or some such?" Grinning Lelouch raised a finger,

"Ends up my piece of shit uncle was in charge of the program to install our implants at conception, he'd purposefully set up the process to filter alcohol and other stimulants to be excessive since he was a petty little bastard, when we developed the L8 implants and started installing the Royalty grade models in Suzaku and Kallen we figured out it was just a software issue, whole lot of us have been upgraded and huzzah, I can drink like a normal person without looking like an alcoholic." With that he grabbed a glass of wine from a passing waiter and downed it,

"I can see that," Barbados laughed, leaning against the table he asked, "So out of curiosity does the man who planned to burn the world but instead ended up ruling it have faith in a higher power?" Mulling this question while munching on a crab cake Lelouch replied,

"Most of my childhood and teenage years I was a hard atheist, the crap we went through we all were, thats why Nunnally started the whole "By the old gods" thing, we had more faith in Lovecraft's creations then we did in any main stream religion, that is to say none." Grabbing another beer and enjoying the fact that he was already getting buzzed he continued, "As of now after a few...revelations I'd say I'm an apathetic agnostic, I'm open to their being a god but I don't rightly care since its either unwilling or incapable of effecting our lives." Humming a note the older man nodded,

"Understandable, I make noises about my faith now and then but honestly my viewpoint is similar, one way or another its our decisions that guide our paths, at the end we'll be judged for the road we took regardless so why bother worrying about it." Glancing over at the young man he grinned again, "I think...I think you and I are both going to have an awful lot to confess to when we pass no?" Chuckling Lelouch finished his third beer and returned the grin,

"You know those cartoons when they unroll a paper and he keeps going? I'm expecting that, but it'll be worth it, I'll drag humanity off this rock even if I have to force it to progress kicking and screaming." Cocking an eyebrow the old man said,

"Oh? Tell me more."

_**In the Kitchen**_

Kallen was discussing the future of Stadtfeld industries with one of her father in laws associates while they headed to the kitchens to perform the most sacred of duties, spiking the punch for their own entertainment, this seemed to amuse Adebola so she insisted on following.

"So anyhow having four mad scientists with multiple overlapping fields of expertise at our disposal we've already progressed cybernetic enhancements by a couple decades in less then a year, the L8's just came out but we're already developing the L9 model which will be using nanites rather then nanobots, the results so far are...astounding." The dark skinned woman cocked her head while asking,

"Whats the difference between the two, I hear them interchanged often," Nodding Kallen continued,

"Nanobots are literal machines, microscopic robots, nanites are as well but they're protein based and much smaller, their composition means the human body can actually fabricate more on its own without having to get a yearly booster and their smaller size means they can do all sorts of crazy shit, like fix the natural fraying of DNA strands. Within the next year or two we're pretty sure we can effectively cure mortality." The other woman stopped dead in her tracks eyes widening,

"You can give a normal person immortality?!" Kallen shook her hand hesitantly,

"Kinda sorta, its effectivally going to be like immortality, no aging or sickness, but things like car accidents, getting ventilated by a machinegun, getting brained with a potted plant and the like will still kill you. Our end goal is after we do some cleanup in the populace with gene therapy, you know get rid of nearsightedness, sickle cell enemia, cancer and the like we'll freely give the implant system out as part of the mandatory two years of military service when you hit eighteen. Once most of our people are effectively invulnerable to wear and tear we'll be colonizing the Sol system like a hobo on a ham sandwich."

"Wow...that's...wow" The young woman actually looked stunned at this revelation, Kallen shrugged a bit and carried on,

"Well its like this, philanthropic work is what helped me justify the chaos we caused in rebelling, when we went legit it felt like I was giving something back to the people for how my life turned out. And well...there's someone special in Lelouch and my life that has been alone for a very long time, this way we can keep her company for awhile, I admit I can be a bit selfish while being giving," Laughing a bit at this she didn't notice the sly smirk that passed on the Nigerian woman's face. As they approached the kitchen door they heard mad cackling through the thick wood panels, cracking the door they saw...insanity in the making.

"Yes, yes, YES add that it'll cover the green color! Hehe...Timeo grab those cans of pineapple, Nunnally gimme another bottle of the good stuff." Her father in law was standing over the massive punch bowl with a large spoon in hand as he was stirring in what looked like a radioactive green liquid. Both woman carried bemused expressions as they walked up to the trio, picking up the bottle Kallens eyes bugged out,

"Is this centuries old Absinthe!?" Startled the three jumped up shocked, upon seeing who it was they all broke out laughing as Nunnally held up a half full glass,

"You will taste the rainbow all the way down! This shit made Van Gogh cut off his own ear he drank so much of it, we're going to invite the chaos god to dinner!" Adebola's eyes widened again as she put it together,

"You're going to get your entire family drunk _and_ high on hallucinogens?" The three of them nodded while smiling, glancing over to Kallen she saw her texting a few of her favored family members with 'Watch out for punch its a Nunnally and Dad special' and hitting send.

"Yeah...yeah thats what they're doing, wanna go get a balcony seat this outta be good?" Her compatriot busted out in laughter nodding.

_**Back at the party**_

Suzaku and Cornelia were chit chatting with one of his father in laws associates as they did their best to avoid the rest of the royal family, they still treated him a bit coldly and Cornelia simply disliked them.

"So anyway with some research Luluka and Lelouch lifted off those who no longer needed it Cornelia and I started a program to develop a cybernetic interface between a war machine and the human brain." Dudley nodded looking impressed,

"You'd still need to have talent to run the machine but your reaction time time would be close to zero yes?" Cornelia grinned viciously,

"Even better, so long as they have at the least nobilty level implants it will be a direct link, you think about moving your hand, the machine will move its hand, Nunnally volunteered-" Suzaku coughed out "demanded" causing his sister in law to snort, "Yes demanded to be the first to test it, she was a formidable pilot at first, now she's...well she's living up to her machines name, we're hoping it will eventually become standard issue." The redhaired man grinned widely,

"Wow, thats...you people have certainly been busy," Suzaku nodded and smirked,

"Yeah then there's the powered armor, that was Cornelia's baby she had a whole stack of designs and specs written on napkins that she handed to Lloyd with the simple order of "Make it awesome," Cornelia smirked at this,

"And he soooo did, we need something inbetween infantry and Knightmares, and the deployment method Tohdoh came up with...it will be marvelous." The young man shook his head ruefully at this,

"Your father let us in on alot of this but not the details, its truley amazing what you lot came up with given free reign." Suzaku grunted in agreement munching on his chips as his wife made her way towards them being trailed by an elderly asian woman, grinning he walked up to the bundle of frustrated femininity and kissed her, she growled out,

"There is booze fucking everywhere Suzu, _everywhere_ and I can't have a drop of it, this hellspawn better be the coolest baby ever or I'll choose to love the next one more." This caused the group to laugh but she looked deathly serious, at once the three family members phones vibrated. Glancing up Suzaku saw that Schneizal, Maribelle, Odyesseus, and Lelouch all pulled theirs out as well, looks of fear and grins of anticipation were seen.

Pulling out his own phone and reading the message he closed his eyes and sighed, turning back his wife he distinctly heard Maribelle say, "Gotta get a camera" as she hurriedly made her way past them.

"Ok dear...shall we get a balcony seat?" Her grin stretched ear to ear.

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_**Hopefully the end result of all this will be up by Saturday, hope you enjoyed it my friends, as always please review.**_

_**Edit: HOLY SHIT! We passed the 100,000 word mark, never wrote anything this long before *happy dance***_


	37. Chapter 35

**TheDelta724-Thank you for the congratulations, I'm kinda shocked I've gotten this far in this story so quickly, its just so much fun to write!**

**The Worldwalker-Patience friend, I had to introduce several knew technologies in an organic manner before the time skip, Cornelia suddenly having her doombots out of nowhere would be lazy story telling, plus after the terrible week I had at work this tiny bit of fluff mixed with world building was a very pleasant distraction for me. Just to give you a bit of teaser for next chapter and an assurance I'm going to keep this going I'll give you two words, Omaha Beach.**

**I hate to say it but this is alot rougher and shorter then I'd like but I've been ill the past couple days along with it being a terrible work week, I hope you guys can forgive me and look past it. With any luck I'll be back on my game before Monday, this getting a hideously nasty head cold in warm weather is just asinine, anyway enjoy and review although I kinda dread the reviews for this one.**

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_**Letting politicians run a war is like having the worst of all worlds, the arrogance of a general, the inexperience of a butter bar, and the strategic understanding of a potato - Grand Admiral Cornelia li Britannia**_

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_**The Eye of the Storm**_

Lelouch watched the grinning trio cart the punch bowl into the room with trepidition, this would be...memorable to say the least, turning to Barbados he simply said,

"Don't drink the punch," and walked towards the high table that Ruben and the student council were gathered at. Glancing at Milly he stated, "Its an Ashford Christmas Special...squared," The three teens and old man's eyes widened, General Santiago who had been busy discussing her new role as Sub-Viceroy looked back and forth between them confused,

"I'm sorry what does that mean?" Lelouch lit a cigarette while offering Rivalz one, lighting it he sighed out,

"Long short? Have a camera ready and emergency services on speed dial, Kallen didn't give me the details but if she felt it necessary to warn us this'll be bad...why me?" With that he just slumped in the seat next to his friend and watched his dad offer up a toast, he honestly wasn't paying attention he just wanted this over with. Hearing the knocking in his thoughts he responded 'Yes sis?'

'Lou, any idea what they spiked that with?' sighing he glanced up to the throne his dad had been sitting at, making his way over he picked up an empty bottle laying on the floor and groaned,

'Yes, two hundred year old absinthe...is someone recording this I don't want Euphemia to miss anything,' feeling amusement from his twin she told him to look up, glancing towards the balcony he saw a grinning Maribelle holding a camcorder. 'Ah, ok,' retaking his seat he watched as one of his brothers broke out laughing while swatting at the empty air, Guinevere was scratching herself frantically until she started screaming and tore her clothes off. As the naked woman ran out of the room Lelouch glanced over to see Cornelia's mom spin kick someone in the face. Rubbing his temples Lelouch watched the situation degrade further, Rivalz broke out into a fit of laughter and gasped out,

"Lou...thanks for the invite I haven't had this much fun in years," Glancing at his friend he mumbled,

"Rivalz the day I snap you're the first to go...god is David seriously arguing with the Christmas tree?" Milly nodded then pointed at another one of his siblings throwing a candle on said tree catching it on fire,

"And Michelle just torched it, is the Knightmare hanger locked up?" Eyes widening in horror Lelouch shot up sprinting for the hanger, as he passed Nunnally, Timeo, and his dad all three of them were cackling like madmen.

"Whymewhymewhymewhyme!"

_**The Next Day**_

Lelouch had spent the better part of the day getting his hung over family packed onto the Great Britannia to be sent back to Pendragon, Odysseus and Maribelle had offered to stick around to help clean up while Schneizal and Cornelia returned to their fleets in the English channel, his father was passed out upstairs, thank god. Odysseus picked up a fragment of the now destroyed hardwood floor as he gingerly attempted to step around the severed Vincent arm still clutching a novelty candy cane in its fist,

"So...ummm...this was probably the second most destructive family gathering we've had yes?" glancing back at the man Lelouch nodded,

"Yeah, we didn't beat out the property damage from Cornelia's sixteenth birthday...but from what I was told Nonette was involved with that and well..." his brother finished smirking,

"Nonette will Nonette things up like no other." Grinning Luluka tossed a destroyed wreath in the trash can,

"Yeah, shit remember when she showed up demanding to know which one of us killed the Knight of Ten? That kiss she gave Nunnally had her blushing so badly she was as red as the Guren." Timeo glanced over to his girlfriend who looked a bit under the weather, she hadn't handled the ancient liquor very well,

"Yes that happened, no I don't want to talk about it, and would you all stop making that bloody buzzing noise? Ugh my head..." Chuckling at her expense Maribelle dropped more debris in the pile they'd formed by the doors,

"So Ody, we taking the old man home after this?" Their eldest brother nodded solemly while wincing a bit,

"Errr...yes, I'd hoped to hitch a ride with you to avoid anymore err...drama, but since he's still comatose it looks like we're going to have to deal with him hungover...joy..." Kallen shrugged sheepishly at her brother in law,

"Sorry, we tried to get him to sober up but he kept insisting he had to talk to Lady Marianne and rambling about ghosts, at that point he threw up on Suzaku and passed out." Sighing Lelouch dropped the load he was hauling and said,

"Fuck it we're hiring wreckers for this, lets go watch some cheesy Christmas movies and forget about this crap, sound good?" Everyone agreed and they left the partially burned out ballroom to the hired help.

_**Upstairs**_

Charles awoke in agony...and in an unfamiliar room incidentally, glancing around he shakily sat up to see four immortals grinning at him, smiling wanly he muttered,

"Morn'in...umm...about yesterday..." Zhenzhen busted out laughing, the elderly asian woman barely keeping it together,

"Shit Chuck can you even remember yesterday?" Thinking about it he thought he remembered something about punch... shrugging he looked over to Barbados and decided to cut to the chase,

"Your decision?" All four grew serious as their leader spoke up,

"You're right, they have the drive, ambition, skills, and resources to pull off what they plan to do, they're alturistic, philonthropic, and ruthless enough to pull their plan off. Its audacious and idealistic...we approve." Nodding Adebola continued for him,

"We have already given them out codes, handshakes all around, don't worry they won't activate until they get themselves killed, and lets face it they will at some point." Eyes widening Charles felt his mouth drop open in shock,

"But...but when C.C. received her code-" Zhenzhen interrupted him with an angry grimace on her face,

"She had her code forced on her by a self centered psychopath who was so desperate to end her immortality that she forced the natural order of things, its why the poor girl has that scar still. We passively gave them our codes and they'll manifest when they're ready, not a moment before, hell I know from personal experience the girls codes will not activate no matter what until their pregnancies come to term." Dudley picked up from there,

"We found out they've actually developed a science based method of acquiring immortality that they planned on using on themselves anyway, they're not going to be resentful about this, it works out quite nicely, sure living for the past 400 years has been interesting but damnit Charles I'm bored and my companions and I only run into each other every few decades, we're all ok with this." Adebola glanced at their former conspiritor and asked,

"What about Nunnally though?" Eyes hardening Charles sat up and did his best to look dignified in an oversized nightshirt...where the hell had _that_ come from?

"I have V.V.'s code reserved for her, she suffered the most from his treachery, its only fitting." Barbados chuckled as he made his way to the door,

"Fitting, well we're off Charles, our codes are now in limbo which means we get to age again, me? I'm finally going to make that trip to Mecca I've always been talking about, you won't be seeing us again old friend, take care of yourself." And with that the four former immortal's moved on with their now mortal lives.

_**Pendragon December 27, 2019 A.T.B.**_

Chip was grinning widely, he'd been down on his luck for so long that his recent financial windfall hadn't quite registered yet, he'd been trying to freelance as a driver for a few months with limited success, his rent was two months over due and his rickety delivery truck was a step away from exploding, so when he had received the call to make a special delivery to the Imperial Palace he'd nearly had a panic attack. The Palace! Making a delivery to the royalty of Britannia was a big deal, you had to be bonafide through more customs than you could imagine to get that kind of gig and it was just handed to him! Grinning as he approached the front gates he handed the guard his papers and made his way up the winding driveway.

Glancing up he saw the Imperial flagship floating towards the palace, the enormous size and elegance of the vessel speaking lengths to the empires superiority, grinning at the sight he distractedly brought his gaze to his now ringing cell. Sighing you flicked it open and said,

"Yes? Oh hello Mr. Salvadore, oh yes yes the Great Britannia just arrived at the palace, why do you ask?" With that the 20 kiloton yield nuclear fission bomb in his cargo hold detonated, the resulting blast killed 95% of the imperial royal family as well as wiping out more then half the capital in seconds. The eventual death toll for this attack would number in the hundreds of thousands, and with those death's the nature of warfare changed forever.

_**Air Battleship Dreadnought 2 hours later**_

The room was dead silent, no one dared say a word, both Charles and Lelouch paced the room, two apex predators shoved into a corner with nothing to lash out at, gritting his teeth Charles let out a tired sigh and collapsed into a plush chair, rubbing his eyes in frustration he seemed to come to a decision.

"Lelouch...I'm abdicating the throne to you," several gasps filled the silence as Lelouch appraised his father, his cold violet eyes analyzing the old man for a moment before he nodded resuming his pacing.

"Very well, you'll address the terrorist attack and then explain how you find it necessary for me to take control, this disaster will be attached to your administration which I can only assume was your intent." His father nodded solemnly at this, "Ok then, first things first, Kallen get a hold of Rakshata and find out if she worked the kinks out of the Terraforming nanobots and cleansing systems, if so I want them in Pendragon yesterday, Suzaku your pet project with Cornelia is green lit with a blank check, choose the men and women you want augmented and have them trained on the equipment by the years end." Turning to his sister he continued, "Lulu, I want you to get on Lloyd's ass to refine that pulse laser he scared us all to death with, make it compact and less...end of the worldy, while you're at it hand off the blueprints for the Vladimir and Boudicca I want them fine tuned and manufactured by next October. Nunnally I want you working with General Santiago, Schneizal and Nelly developing an invasion plan, we want audacious and unexpected that's why you're on the project." Taking a deep breath the new Emperor let out a sigh as he turned to a very pale Maribelle who met his gaze with determination,

"What would you have me do...my Emperor," Nodding Lelouch pulled out a thick folder and handed it to her,

"Your job sister is to find out specifically which bastard just nuked our family and our home, you have a blank check as well and Suzaku agreed to hand over his personal Avalon class cruiser to you for the duration of the operation, you're given free authority to find out what you need to regardless of legalities and morality, I want these bastards to pay." Giving Lelouch a resolved smile she started leafing through the documents the second they were in her hands. Glancing over to Odysseus he whispered, "I need you to make sure dad doesn't fall off the deep end." Meeting his younger brothers gaze he nodded sadly in understanding. Dismissing the lot of them Lelouch collapsed in his chair finally letting it all hit him, as he contemplated the future C.C. slid onto his lap and held him close, stroking his hair as he nuzzled her she whispered,

"And what of me my warlock?" Looking into the amber eyes of his lover he smiled sadly,

"You my witch have the hardest task of all...making sure your warlock does not fall to his own despair."

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**So yeah, that happened, I rather liked Pendragon too hopefully they can fix it, but hey check it rally cry for the nation and I don't have to come up with back stories for hundreds of siblings, good times! Anyway I still feel like crap and I truly hope you guys can forgive me for cutting some corners with this one, I'm getting some bloody sleep and hoping I feel inspired to do something other then crawl into a corner and pass out for a week.**


	38. Chapter 36

**Author's note- Wow nothing quite like 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep to feel alive again, last chapter sucked and I'm going to go back and fix a few things, I hate it honestly. THIS chapter was so much fun to write, so many things are finally coming together and I get to flex my near useless history degree some so huzzah! Anyway enjoy folks I really really like this one and I hope you do too.**

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**_People say expect the unexpected, my wife and I personally believe that if someone prepares for the unexpected its not really the unexpected now is it? Think outside the box and hit them with something they'd never even consider to be a threat, and when they start expecting that move on to something new-_General Kyoshiro Tohdoh, consort to Grand Admiral Cornelia li Britannia Circa 2033 A.T.B.**

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_**Paris, France December 28, 2019 A.T.B**_

V.V furiously slammed the door to the President's office open and walked up to the laughing man as he was casting his Geass on a pair of concerned generals, both the man and woman looked like they were fully resisting it and the male of the pair looked ready to throw down any moment. Oddly it was the white haired woman who snapped first, she spoke so quickly V.V. had a hard time catching it all but he got the jist of it,

"Do you have any idea what you've done you imbecile?! We already figured out that the prince, or rather the _EMPEROR_ now held off the invasion because using his sister as a rallying flag wouldn't work long term, you just gave him both the moral high ground and a fucking recruiting call!" President Salvadore did what he always did when confronted with people not agreeing with him, smile and speak condescendingly,

"General de Gaulle what I've done is damage the moral of all of Britannia by burning their capital and reducing the royal family to ashes, they will back off soon and our glorious way of life shall continue to reign supreme." At that the male general snapped, V.V.'s head hurt from trying to mishmash the interspersed German and French together but the meaning wasn't lost on him,

"Are you fucking insane?! The former Area's vere apprehensive about this invasion at first but you dropped a nuke dead center in a civilian area vhile the Black Prince...heh...rather the Black _Emperor_ has never dropped a single WMD on a none military target! Its like Chloe said you've given him the moral high ground vhile at the same time demonizing us! As for killing the royal family good for you! You effectively separated the grain from the chaff! You killed hundreds of royals but NONE of the dangerous ones!" His smile faltering the President stuttered a bit,

"Well I thought, you know that-" General de Gaulle cut him off,

"Did you kill the strategic geniuses Schneizel, Lelouch, or Luluka? Hmm? Did you kill the rallying flag of peaceful integration Euphemia? Did you kill the damn Reaper of Edinburgh Nunnally? Did you kill the symbol of scholarly understanding Odysseus? Did you kill the head of their counter terrorist organization Maribelle? Did you kill the fucking WITCH OF BRITANNIA CORNELIA?! YOU MORON! All you've done is unite three fourths of the goddamn world against us!" Not letting the President respond the two of them turned around and stormed out, as Rommel was about to pass the threshold he looked back at the perplexed President his eye still glowing a sickly pink,

"Don't be shocked vhen the mutinies, AWOL's and strait turncoating happen, vhat you've done here is worse then the vay you bungled The Forbidden City, good day mister President, ve need to figure out a vay to maintain a functional army before the end of the evening." And with that the pair was gone, the President still smiling slightly flared his Geass while staring at V.V.,

"You agree with my decision, don't you Mr. V.V.?" Glaring at the politician he snorted out,

"Those two said everything I came here to say, I offered you power and a chance at immortality, you just fucked that so hard I have no idea how we'll recover. I'm Britannian remember that, I know my people and I know the fact that despite my hatred for him that harlots son has unified all the conquered nations of the world behind him. You're doomed, we're doomed, and you wasted the Fatman on a soft target while at the same time doing half of Lelouch's work for him." Looking confused, again, the President asked,

"How did I help him? I gutted the nobility who were in Pendragon for Christmas as well as most of the Royal family?" Holding his head and dearly wishing he had a joint right about now V.V. sighed out,

"One of his goals was completely abolishing the nobility, you literally just killed about eighty percent of them, you made a delicate decades long process become something he can get around in less then a month." Turning to leave V.V. laughed waving behind him,

"Enjoy your little war, those two aren't going to stick around much longer you'd be amazed how intelligent people can recogonize a hopeless situation and make the best of it."

_**Outside the Presidential Palace**_

Erwin broke five years of temptation and bought a pack of smokes from a street vendor, Chloe indulged with him as they stomped down the street seething, swinging his head left and right his long red hair billowing in the wind the German man finally snarled out,

"Ok...ok I'm going to be the one vho says it, I will NOT sacrifice my soldiers for that man and his var," Nodding sadly as she held down her beret from a gust of wind Chloe glanced to her lover,

"Nor I, we've finally phased the Hummel's out of both of our task forces and you know as well as I do that means we're on the frontline where ever the Pri...the Emperor decides to hit, my people are on edge and frantic, they know it will be raining Freyja's any moment now...or he'll simply let his wife and siblings off their leashes and slaughter them one by one." Grimacing as he lit another cigarette Erwin glowered at the open air in front of him,

"This was impulsive, the timing vas terrible and even that adviser vi Britannia varned us about looked furious, and his eye, that fucking power, you noticed how your pendant burned a little as he cast it?" She nodded at this, "Its just like Emperor Lelouch said, he tried to convince us this vas a good idea just like he did to Instructor Santiago! Ve vere lucky and had these damn necklaces vhile she was marched off to the firing squad and vas just fortunate enough that the Emperor isn't trigger happy! Vhat vould have happened to us, vhat vould have happened to our _people_ if it had worked?! FUCK!" Seething in fury the two made their way to their favorite cafe. It wasn't lost on them that the populace was on edge as well, they knew what had been stirred and it terrified them.

"Love lets just grab a couple drinks and take a breather...I...I can't take this at the moment," Erwin nodded as they took their usual table, staring down into their coffee they were so lost in their thoughts they didn't notice the Japanese man and Britannian woman sit at their table until they scooted their chairs in. Glancing at the gorgous black haired woman he was shocked when her hand lunged out and grabbed his cigarette, she took a pull from it and sighed happily while her compatriot frowned.

"Well, you all kinda fucked up eh? Not shocked honestly your entire system went to hell when you rewrote the laws to let corporations be considered voters, dumb shit move there." Both general's eyed the newcomers with confusion when the Japanese man sighed out,

"Luluka I know you insist you're allowed to smoke in your condition but I wish you wouldn't...ugh...anyway yeah your country is proper fucked, my brother is on the warpath and what we told you a couple weeks ago holds true, we plan on invading in about a year." Eyes widening Chloe finally recognized the pair, and she also realized the mans eyes were glowing behind his sunglasses, grinning at her expression he said, "Yeah we look like a couple hipsters talking about vinyle records with you two right now, no worries." With that Luluka happily puffed out the cloud of smoke she'd been holding in while handing the cigarette back to the flummoxed German,

"So yeah, Lou and Izzy insist we don't kill you two, no idea why other then respect and sentimentally I'm assuming. Anyway here's the deal, yer not idiots, you love your homes and you care for your troops and yer also aware a protracted war will only end with both destroyed and most likely dead, so here." Handing Chloe and Erwin each a cell phone she stood while her husband grabbed some biscuits off the table and began munching on them, speaking through his chewing Suzaku continued for her,

"When you two decide that you're not going to sacrifice your men to the hellfire call the only contact on those phones and we'll make arrangements, you two take care now I'm gonna go take my wife to see the Eiffel tower she's wanted to spit off the top of it since we were twelve, take care." And with that the two enemy commanders walked out of the cafe and into the crowd, looking down at the cell phones in their hands they exchanged a glance and nodded as they pocketed the illicit devices.

**_Damocles_**_**, Patrolling the Duchy of China's borders June 22 2020 A.T.B. **_

_"In recent news Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia has announced that despite professional projections insisting it would take nearly a decade to clean the radioactive fallout caused by the terrorist attack on Pendragon the city is officially safe to habitate again. Construction of the new Imperial Palace and memorial to those who were felled in the cowardly attack has already begun and current estimates say the city will be brought back to its former glory within the next three years. _

_The Emperor's initially controversial plan to replace the administrative ranks traditionally held by the now devastated nobility with commoners has proven to be both effective and popular many seeing it as a sign of upward mobility, this coupled with the massive military buildup and recruitment drives show that our new leader is both progressive and preparing for an action against those responsible for the nuclear attack. When Euphemia li Britannia was asked her opinion on the subject she simply stated "A wise leader speaks kindly yet fields a large army."_

Cecile clicked the television off while glancing over to her boyfriend who was busily fidgeting a lose part about on one of the Fenrir armor units while Rakshata was mumbling at her terminal,

"Pudding head I don't know about you but this collaboration the young man has forced us into is both vexing and enlightening, I still want to kill you but my do we get quite a bit done quickly." Humming to himself as he finally got the part to sit right he began ratcheting it down while replying,

"Hmm indeed, when I ran into them was it...three years ago? I lose track of these things but I digress when I ran into them I'd never expected this is be the route my life would take, powered armor, ninth generation knightmares, terraforming technology, nearul interfaces, effective immortality, its amazing what has manifested since they forced the four of us to play nice." As he was saying this Nina hopped into the two and a half meter tall digitigrade armored frame and hooked it to the new jack on the base of her neck, the vaguely lycanthropic machine shifted as she raised its clawed arm rotating the wrists 360 degrees, nodding in satisfaction she disengaged the connection and hopped back out.

"Yeah I never thought I'd basically be given free reign to develop anything I wanted with the best minds in the world, although Lou was seriously pissed off about that laser we made, kinda feel bad about misleading him on that." Cecil shrugged as she went back to her calculations for Lelouch's pet Knightmare project, the boy was a genius but cleaning up his designs was a headache,

"He was angry before but just like any good leader he's admitted hypocrisy is acceptable for a good cause, we'd already refined the laser down to a battleship grade weapon before he even asked so we're forgiven...hmmm...dangit the Vladamir is starting to irk me a bit. These contained energy wings are perfect for stealth but we're going to have to make them out of the same material as the Excaliber, Gungnir and Masamune...which means bloody expensive." Lloyd sighed tossing his hands in the air,

"Well Lelouch will just have to deal with it, he wants all this marvelous science completed by the end of the year, costs will be just as excessive as his demands, has anyone seen my scotch? Ugh..." Rakshata pointed him in the right direction while she walked up to Cecil,

"Hmm...well we're going to have to increase the power to the Higgs Field Neutralizer to compensate for their extra mass, the demonic visage is a nice touch by the way dear," Smiling at the compliment Cecil scooted aside to let the Indian woman give her work a once over. Nodding at the specs she glanced over to the bluenette, "think of a name for the scythe yet?" Nodding Cecil brought out a few drawings and placed them on the table,

"I'm thinking Messor, Latin for 'Harvestor', Lelouch wants this thing to be a pure stealth melee powerhouse so I'm also giving it an inordinate amount of hidden slash harkens, kind of like what we did with the Percival but less exploding." Making an approving noise Rakshata walked back to her own terminal while pouring some coffee into a cup already holding something significantly stronger then the black liquid,

"I like it, the Boudica will complement it nicely as a sniper platform, after we stole err...borrowed the laser technology from the Europeans its rifle will be a thing of wonders...well technically it wouldn't be a rifle without rifling would it? Doom ray has a nice ring to it though, perhaps blue beam of death?...oh well I'll think it over..." And with that the four mad scientists continued doing what they did best, whatever they wanted in so long as it was useful to their Emperor, they couldn't be happier.

_**Pendragon, New Imperial Palace December 26, 2020 A.T.B.**_

Empress Kallen vi Britannia carried her seven month old son Naoto into the nursery he shared with his cousin Marianne, she gently placed the baby in his crib stroking his red hair, is vivid violet eyes staring up at her happily. She sang to him gently for about ten minutes until he slipped into sleep, turning to her sister in law who was currently breast feeding her daughter she smiled sadly,

"I don't like leaving them here alone...I know we have to do what we have to do but..." Luluka nodded in understanding,

"Yeah know what you mean, this little shit is seriously the most important thing in the world to me...if we didn't have Jerry and Saeko to play protectors I doubt I'd be able to leave her," with that she shifted the little brown haired bundle from her chest while covering herself. Placing the now sleepy child in her crib she smiled down at her looking content, turning back to Kallen she motioned for her to follow, as she closed the door behind them she addressed the two knights standing at the door,

"Anya, Gino, you two are a pair of the most terrifyingly efficient killers the Empire has and I consider you both dear friends, that's why I'm assigning you each as the personal knights of our children, its not glamorous and you'll be a wasted resource considering the coming war but...but I really want to know my...our kids are safe, do you accept?" The two rounds exchanged glances then saluted as one,

"Your Highness it would be an honor, just make sure the bastard who killed our people pays...and...heh if you wanna rotate us out with one of the other rounds occasionally that'd be great, you know, get the kinks out now and then." Smirking at Gino as his girlfriend smacked him on the back of the head Anya continued for the couple,

"Of course I'm honored, I'll take personal responsibility for Marianne, Gino will keep Naoto safe." Looking uncomfortable speaking so much she shrugged causing the geass inhibitor on around her neck to sway, "Its a bit overkill since you have a ninja and a knight in charge of security but I think a bit of paranoia is healthy." Grinning at the Rounds Kallen bowed lightly in respect, with one last set of salutes the Knights split off to patrol the premises. Sighing Luluka stared at the closed nursery for a moment before spinning on her heel and walking towards the hangers, Kallen followed as the two women brooded about what they were leaving behind.

_**High Earth Orbit, Stealth Transport IMS Silent Knife December 28, 2020 A.T.B.**_

General Tohdoh's brainchild glided silently in the shadow of mother Earth, its gefjun disturbers and exhaust emissions sink keeping the vessel invisible to all, its massive broad wings carrying hundreds of lozenge shaped capsules to be dropped on their target below. The pilots of the transport were on edge, while it was unlikely the Europeans would see their payloads as they re-entered the atmosphere there was a small chance that the overcast skies would clear long enough to see their fiery decent. As the timer approached zero the co-pilot hit her comm,

"We're approaching the drop site, drop commencing in T-minus 10 seconds...5...4...3..2.1...dropping." Flicking the switch the capsules broke loose from their berths lazily falling towards the black skies below, as burning plasma flared around the free falling black pods retro thrusters reoriented them as they drifted collecting them in six distinct groups. As they cut through the air and slammed through the cloud cover the lights of Cherbourg France shined brightly below, no flak cannons or CIWS fired at the approaching capsules, either unaware of their presence or unable to target the stealth pods. At roughly a hundred meters above the ground powerful rockets activated arresting their descent, at twenty meters the pods shattered and the towering forms of hundreds of Fenrir power armored suits hit the ground, their lupine legs absorbing the impact without notice. As one the troops of the 101st Orbital Assault Division pulled their over sized weapons from their hard points and sprinted across the city to sow chaos.

Lietenent Shigeru Fujiwara swung his 12.7mm heavy machine gun towards a barracks and opened fire, the belt fed rounds penetrating the wood and passing through the sleeping soldiers as if they were made of paper, while it was dishonorable to kill a man in his sleep this was war and Britannia intended to win. As he pushed his augmented body forward he entered into a lopping gait and jumped 10 meters into the air to get a good view of the now panicked base. The captain's unit entered the main knightmare hanger and began slapping charges on the inactive machines while Shigeru hopped down and lead his people to do the same to the ammunition and energy filler depot. A soldier ran out of the building next to him with an RPG in hand causing Shigeru to spin swinging his clawed hand through unfortunate soul, stepping over the blood soaked ground he activated his fact sphere. Turning his glowing red eye towards the city below he ordered his men to follow him as he tailed Captain Jet, safely away from the base they keyed the charges taking the knightmare facility and all its personnel out in a massive fireball, locking onto the cities power stations the Fenrir units dropped to all fours and began a mad dash to their next target.

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**I wanted power armored orbital drop troops like Starship Troopers, (the book no the movie) ODST's from Halo and Exotroopers from Exosquad without ripping them off, hence where the Fenrir armor idea came from, and by the by Shigeru is the hotdog vendor Kallen and Lelouch rescued three years ago, he's come a long way. Anyway I CANNOT wait to write next chapter, D-Day has begun, review and fav/follow folks, I'm addicted to positive reinforcement!**


	39. Chapter 37

_**Major announcement at the end of the chapter, I need all of my readers to offer their opinion on the future of this work, please lemme know your opinion**_

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_**I'm so glad we did minimal damage to Paris, the bread here is fucking delicious-Empress Kallen vi Britannia to her consort C.C.**_

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_**D-Day, December 28 2020 A.T.B.**_

As the Funrir forces reaped the chaos that the E.U. had sowed the invasion of France began in earnest in the early morning hours, while the landing forces had been fully prepared for a meat grinder the complacent enemy commanders had been confident Britannia would never do something as insane as a frontal assault. Unfortunately for them Emperor Lelouch had assigned an insane person to plan the invasion solely for this reason, before dawn the port cities of France had already fallen to the armed incursion of the orbital assault troops, as the sun rose the shores where thick with Knightmares and standard armor. Erwin knew that the fall of this country was inevitable but he really hadn't anticipated that the first foothold would take less then two hours to acquire, staring at the approaching cloud of flying war machines he glanced down at the cell phone in his hand.

He observed the proud men and women around him, a force fifty thousand strong all terrified beyond words but willing to follow the Desert Fox to their deaths on the blind hope that he could lead them to...no not victory...they weren't that stupid...lead them to survival perhaps... The redhead gritted his teeth in rage as he opened the phones contact list and dialed 'Zero', as the phone rang he cursed the President, God, and himself...

"Hello, I won't be a prick about this Mr. Rommel, would you like to be folded into my forces and remove the stain that is your Government?" Blood boiling at the very idea of surrender he hissed out a sigh then regained his composure,

"...Yes... I vill not sacrifice my people on a lost cause, especially one I don't even agree vith... Chloe's forces are in Madrid if-" The Emperor cut him off there.

"She just surrendered forty five minutes ago, Cornelia pulled the same dick move I did here, General de Gaulle's fine and if you decide to give up and join me I have a present for both you and your lovely lady in waiting, my goal is unification with as little loss of life as possible, I'd like you to meet my field commander in twenty minutes, nice to do business with you Mr. Rommel." With that the Emperor of Britannia hung up, throwing the phone against the side of his knightmare shattering it Erwin marched towards the open ground between his army and the invaders. As he reached the center of no mans land a small brunette woman and a blonde man waved from underneath a parasol, motioning him to sit at their table the Britannian woman grinned happily.

"Hiya Erwin! Izzy has told me so much about you! She totes shipped you and de Gaulle when you two were students, she's so proud of you! Anyway Lou asked me to not murder the fuck out of you and offer the olive branch instead, incidentally he also asked me not to beat you with said olive branch, clever bugger...anyway this is my boyfriend Timeo LeBeau formerly of the E.U. up till your idiot leaders tried to nuke his firm ass. Dreamy isn't he? So yer here to surrender right? Totes hope so the knightmare Lou and Kallen designed for you is sick as fuck." Staring at the small woman in utter confusion Rommel glanced to the young man at her side,

"Err, sorry Nunnally operates on a different wavelength then the rest of us, hi I'm Captain LeBeau, I turned coat when I was ordered to suck a nuke on the off chance it might kill my future brother in law, I hope we can have a civil discussion." The woman at his side made a high pitched noise as her eyes widened and she latched onto the Captains arm,

"Timmy, brother in law? Was that like a super awkward proposal!?" Stammering the blonde man mumbled out something that sounded like 'Kind of', at this the brunette latched her mouth to his and some heavy petting began, now suffering from complete and total exasperation Rommel let out a cough, the blushing couple straitened out their uniforms and then Nunnally continued,

"Ahem...anywho I'm here to absorb your forces so we can get on with conquering France and move on to Germany which is going to be a bitch, Spain already folded when Izzy hit them with Nelly, winds up when a long dead war hero turns up on the enemies side people wig out a bit, figures. So mister sexy German fella want a flying super death bot?" Feeling a migraine taking hold Erwin let his shoulders slump as he said,

"Sure...vhy not?'

_**Outside Paris two days later**_

Lelouch waved to his newest General's as they made their way to his transport, de Gaulle was shifting her uniform about uncomfortably but Rommel was quite content in the German style coat.

"Hello, you two have been long term acquisitions for my collection, I refuse to be a stuck up jerk about this you were jammed into a losing situation and had to make due to save who you could, I won't hold this against you, follow me please?" Nodding the couple tailed the Emperor as he made it to the inner hold of the transport, flipping a switch the lights flickered on illuminating two horned units, one demonic and black the other blocky and green.

"Vhat...vhat are these?" Erwin asked in awe, Chloe was smiling already putting two and two together. Lelouch grinned at his newest assets as he said,

"The Vladimir and the Boudica, one dedicated to stealth melee the other to sniper combat, designed to complement each other as lovers do, my wife and I have been sitting on these designs for you two since Izzy started yammering about how much she respected you."

Motioning to the black unit he continued, "Vladimir, its energy wings are self contained in the demonically lovely armor, incidentally this will deflect any weapons so its also effectively a shield, its main melee weapon is a scythe, stylistic choice on Kallens part, its as deadly as my little sisters spear. You have slash harkens in the knees, above the hands, and in the feet and shoulders, you also have a pair of folding hadron blasters in the hip armor, enjoy Mr. Rommel." Turning the Chloe as she was eyeballing the other unit in lust Lelouch addressed her,

"The Boudica, sniper platform, the rifle is a high intensity ultra violet wavelength laser weapon, it will literally burn through anything, so no "shoot the hostage" bullshit, you also have a pair of high powered VARIS pistols on the back skirt armor and a pair of long swords on the hips. The entire body contains roughly three dozen hidden CIWS and missile launchers and its armor shroud also contains an energy wing system like your boyfriends. We designed these units so you two could disarm your countrymen without killing them, we want integration not slaughter." Tossing them each a key FOB the Emperor walked away waving dismissively,

"Ogle your new toys, I'm putting you back under Izzy's command while we march on Paris, I expect great things from you, right now I need some sleep."

_**IMS Dreadnought, The Emperor's State Room  
**_

As the comm channel beeped at him repetitively Lelouch fumbled around for the comm control while trying not to wake up either of the naked women in his bed, he sighed in exasperation remembering the damn thing was voice activated now, grumbling he accepted the call which connected to a flurry of accented curses.

"Mate I don't give a flying fuck if that cunt wants his supplies in an hour if he wanted it that bloody quickly he damn well should have ordered it yesterday not an hour ago! Oh well fine you...wait the Emperor connected talk to you later. 'Ello yer highness I thought you'd like a status update." Rolling his eyes at the engineers...leadership skills he responded with,

"Right, how is construction of the Peacemillion going?" There was an irritated snort on the other end of the line when the Australian woman replied,

"Yer highnessness how many times do I have to tell you its the Trailblazer now? No fucking way in hell I'm allow'in the first interplanetary exploration vessel we throw off this rock to be named after something from a bloody cartoon, especially since the goddamn thing got blown up, _no one_ is blow'in up my ship yah hear? Anyway we're ahead of schedule, I had a few Kiwi's shipped off from Auckland to help supplement our teams, building this damn thing in the outback is a great idea and all but shit is it a pain in the ass to get supplies and extra hands when you need 'em. Doesn't help that every fucking thing on this continent tries to murder us on a regular basis, fuck did you know koala's are poisonous? _Koalas_, anyway we should have the hull finished in six months and with any luck the main stardrive will be operational in a year." Nodding to himself he asked,

"And what of the troubles with your engineering team?" He swore he heard her eyes roll as she snorted out,

"Yeah, that, they're insisting we have a spinal mounted pulse laser just in case, they seem to be under the impression that if alien life decides to make itself known we should have the ability to blow them the fuck up, personally I say let them have their toy installed and then lock the goddamn thing down, worst case scenario the activation codes become a shitty paper weight, thoughts boss?" His sigh mirrored her own opinion and eventually he just said,

"Fuck it, fine Moira do what you need to do but if they start whining about the goddamn spiders again-" the projects lead engineer cut him off with a laugh,

"I'll make 'em sleep outside in their skivvies, you take care boss man and kick the frogs a couple times for me eh? Back to it." With that the comm cut out and Lelouch let his head hit the pillow again, smirking he fell asleep to dreams of open starry skies.

_**Paris, France three days later**_

As V.V. watched the battle enfold in front of him he couldn't help but feel trapped on the massive flying warship, the _Avenger_ had been a battleship carrier before its conversion but like all former nautical vessels its field of overlapping fire were weak at best. Sighing as he rubbed his temples he missed the opening shots as they hit the cheap knock off blaze luminous shielding, he was not unobservent enough to ignore the fact his ship was taking most of the hits, not good. Ordering his men to concentrate their firepower on the Dreadnought he was damn near blinded by a pulse of white energy that shattered one of his shield panels, a split second later a blue winged frame crashed into the deck. Looking left and right a young woman broadcasted a sardonic,

"Nice ship you have here," and with that it fired a blast from its left hand burning all the way through to the ships core, as it detonated the ensuing explosion consumed the vessel sending a burning V.V. free falling to Parisian streets below. As his shattered body regenerated he coughed up a gout of blood and stumbled into a building trying to catch his breath, looking about he realized he'd fallen into one of the military districts, which was a very _very_ bad thing. Glancing out the window his eyes widened in horror as he saw twelve floating Gareth's split their hands open and fire upon his position, running from his shelter as the hadron barrage hit the building he dove out of the way as the structure was reduced to cinders.

The flight of Gareth's did not slow an instant as they systematically burned the military district to the ground. Glancing up he watched as a demonically winged frame slashed apart a dozen hummel's in seconds, the hovering torso's ejecting their cockpit blocks in near unison. Spinning its scythe lazily the machine ignored any energy blasts that hit it while all missiles where shot out of the air by its trailing companion. Groaning the diminutive immortal made his way through the battlefield in utter shock, he'd expected the invasion to be quick but he'd anticipated years not fucking _days_. Watching one of the Britannian Vincent's explode taking two of its partners with it he smiled for a second before the blue unit that had sunk his ship landed in the center of the group of Panzers slaughtering the lot of them with a twirl of its spear. Turning to face him the helmed head glared down out him with glowing red eyes, staring in shock he managed to mutter,

"Nunnally..." before he could move the unit fired an energy shot from its palm blowing up the pavement at his feet and reducing his legs to burger. As he crawled away his legs reformed and he was able to start hobbling towards an alley, he then felt a strong hand grip his neck, being slammed against the brick wall he found himself staring into the glazed eyes of his niece.

"Hiya uncle Vivictis, daddy told me all about you, how you molested my sibling's genetic code forcing them to be twins...thanks for that by the way, how you murdered mommy and forced her to hide her soul in Anya, how you shot _me_ in the spine a dozen times to sell your lie, I know everything." Grinning sadistically Nunnally slammed him against the wall again while drawing a knife stabbing him in the kidneys, still smiling she drew another blade and stuck him in the stomach. "Ya know I wish I could say I didn't enjoy the fuck out of this but honestly I've been having wet dreams about this moment since I was eight," Pulling her fist back she smashed the immortal in the face,

"Oh was that your nose? That was your nose wasn't it?" Throwing V.V. to the ground Nunnally straddled his legs as she stabbed two more knives into his hands pinning him to the ground, "You know the funny part? I can honestly say I'd have probably lived a fairly boring life if you'd succeeded, the idea of being crippled for life is just...appalling, but hey that's the funny thing eh? This is all your fault, anyway Daddy told me what I needed to do to you to really hurt you, he's a good daddy when you get past the genocidal megalomania." With that she grasped his forehead and absorbed his code without resistance, standing she left the bleeding man child where he was sprawled,

"If you survive this hit me up, I don't plan on dying till my mid twenties, wanna at least hit a C-cup before I become immortal, toodles asshole, when you hit hell and meet all my victims tell 'em the reaper says hello." And with that Nunnally vi Britannia strutted away from the bleeding out mortal.

* * *

**I knew an Aussie named Moira but she swore alot more then the one I wrote, often poetically, sometimes I miss Warcraft, also Nunnally got her jollies off finally wacking the guy that ruined her, yay? Rommel's frame is based off the Deathscythe Hell Custom from Gundam Wing Endless Waltz because I love the design, hell it was my cake topper for my wedding while my wife had Wing Zero, screw you guys we're nerds. Chloe's unit is based off the Gundam Dynames from Gundam 00 because I like the design and couldn't find a way to insert a Lockon Stratos proxy, ah well maybe later. Also someone asked if there will be major character deaths at any point and honestly there was one written awhile ago but I kept getting flashbacks of Roy Fokker dying in the early 90's and I really rather not relive a badass passing for no reason like that again. Anywho I have a proposition for my readers, going by my records about three to five of you review each chapter but there is currently like, five hundred people reading this story consistently and I need all of you to voice in an opinion on where this is going.**

**Long short, about 60 to 80k more words and this stories done, I considered having an Asimov style 'Foundation' series but to be honest with you that would require a massive amount of world building on my part and I would not be getting paid for it, I love this shit but not that much especially since a stagnant Empire story just sounds so god awful boring. So here is my proposition, if I get enough positive responses I want to delve into a crossover, and before you begin groaning and unfavorite me lemme explain ok? As I discussed with AisloreIV what kills a crossover story is alienating fans of either IP, be it not explaining what the hell is going on or ignoring one of the prime protagonists, he mentioned how he's abandoned stories because of this and frankly so have I. If I did this cross over with Mass Effect rest assured their would a slow transition to explain that universe to you newbies, I won't just start spouting Star Trek style technobabble and expect you to keep up.**

**The things I really look forward to writing about are how in the game the Earth System Alliance was only a galactic power for twenty some odd years before the first contact war cowed them into becoming part of the political machine in 2157 CE. Now here's the deal, the Holy Britannian Empire would be a fully unified force starting its exploration around err, I believe the A.T.B. timeline is at 1967 CE at the beginning of the series so roughly the mid 1980's, so with 200 years head start some real chaos could ensue. Another biggy and one I love is that the rest of the galaxy would be using mass effect technology which simply put is run on space magic, an element known cleverly as element zero either causes the local area to loss or gain mass depending the electrical charge run through it. Here's the thing though, Lloyd, Cecile, and Rakshata already did that through conventional science thanks to the room temperature superconductivity of sakuradite with the float system. Sakuradite verses eezo...god that would be awesome...there's also a few galactic events I'd love my Lelouch to confront:**

**First Contact War: A scattered group of human exploration ships are caught activating a mass relay (I.E. the McGuffin that allows instantaneous space travel) by the Turians (think Klingons with a stick up their ass) which violates a galactic law they had no way of knowing of its existence, in the prime ME timeline humanity barely holds out for six months before having to admit defeat and joining the Council races. I want Lelouch's Imperium to deal with this event, it will be fucking hilarious.**

**Skyllian Blitz: The Batarians (a race whose entire economy is based around slavery despite it being illegal, the Council finds its just easier to pretend they don't do it rather then confront them) jealous of Humanities expansionism in territory they see as theirs (despite having no ability to expand due to their shitty economy) finance a massive slave grab against human colonies. While the Systems Alliance counter attacked the invading force they weren't allowed to do anything else against the slaver race without upsetting the council...Lelouch does not like slavery, he also does not give a flying fuck what anyone else thinks, I could have soooooo much fun with that one.**

**Anyway just a few ideas, hope you guys read through this and please please please lemme know your opinion, I've already set a bunch of the ground work from day one so it won't be too jarring but if no one wants it I won't bother writing it, take care all! **


	40. Chapter 38

**This was a decent chapter but I did not like it, you'll find out why, ugh...take care folks**

**Edit:Posted this after writing it on 3 hours of sleep and 12 hours of work, so yeah had to do some serious re-editing of certain parts, so many misspellings, sorry about that**

* * *

_**In the Skies of Paris**_

Suzaku and Kallen swooped down at supersonic velocity towards one of Paris' many defense towers as the Dreadnought's new spine mounted pulse laser seared away its shields, the two frames then opened fire on the breach destroying the facilities command installation, sighing Suzaku locked onto the next one.

"Damn things are doing a number on our airships, we've already lost most of our light cruisers, figures that the only competent commander left here is the one we needed gone the most," juking out of the way as a neighboring tower took a potshot at him the laser beam continued on and scorched a hole in its derelict companion. Groaning in frustration the two aces sped forward cleaving through any Panzers stupid enough to get in their way as they avoided another shot from the tower,

"Note to self, make like sixty of these for Tokyo and Pendragon, seriously," the Empress mumbled as she lazily spun around the beam, glancing down she realized they were flying over the Presidential Residence, out of spite she fired a fully power radiation wave at the building causing much of it to explode, glancing back at his sisters antics Suzaku asked,

"Seriously Kali? Was that necessary?" Grinning at her partner she chuckled, "Nope," as they continued on towards the tower.

**_Presidential_**_** Residence Bunker**_

President Salvadore looked around in confusion, his bunker was shaking precariously and the few Generals he still had were panicking as they desperately attempted to salvage the situation. He honestly had no idea what had gone wrong, he'd manipulated all the right people to agree to his long term plans but nothing had come from it, the leaders of his two largest and best equipped task forces had surrendered and joined the Empire a few days ago which had been troubling. He was doubly confused by that because he'd flared his geass till it hurt his head to make them his, and while their betrayal was bad the announcement of Rommel's turning coat had caused Germany to follow Spain's example and officially leave the Union. Portugal and the Netherlands had followed suit while Finland and Switzerland had withdrawn their forces and sat on the fence. One of his generals groaned as the tactical map updated,

"Tohdoh and Xingake have moved on Russia, they used those infernal new powered armor suits to take Moscow in the night and they've got some sort of high powered lasers on the Damocles swatting ships out of the air in one hit. They've replaced the entirety of the Chinese Gun-Ru force with Akatsuki's and steam rolled through Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Kemerovo and...shit, they're being led by the Knights of the Round..." Flaring his Geass Salvadore looked at the man smiling,

"But we can turn this around right? It shouldn't be too difficult yes?" The general stared at him dumbfounded then rubbed his face in exasperation, tearing his rank insignia off he tossed them on the tactical screen while walking away,

"Fuck it I quit, good luck Mr. President I'm going to go find something so strong to drink that it would be confused with engine degreaser." Staring down at the patches in befuddlement Salvadore looked to his aide flaring his geass again,

"I think some tea would be nice about now yes?" The young woman looked ready to have a nervous breakdown as she stood and followed the now mumbling general out of the room while popping a Xanax. Sighing Salvadore approached the terminal while shaking his head,

"Well fine if you all won't listen to me I'll have to do this on my own," Pecking at the keyboard he activated the Goliath's command protocols, initiating the units Virtual Intelligence he smiled to himself happily. Computers, computers _always_ listened, having no idea what the command actually meant he set it to auto-attack and initiated the massive machines launch on the outskirts of Paris.

_**Back above Paris**_

Chloe watched in bemusement as Erwin darted the Vladamir through a flight of ace Schwalbe's firing all eight of his slash harkens at once disabling two of the machines while entangling two more, swinging his scythe he cleaved a fifth in half as she lined up her rifle sending two high intensity blue violet beams through the flight units of the entangled pair. As five cockpit blocks burned away from their falling frames she distinctly heard her boyfriend giggle a bit,

"I have to say my dear, I shouldn't be feeling so much fulfillment fighting our own people but flying this monster is a dream, to think I'd been stuck in a goddamn Panzer for most of my career," As he was saying this they had both snapped off a pair of shots at a passing airship disabling its primary float system causing it to crash land.

"I know what you mean, this beast does exactly what I want it to do instantly, the reaction time is intense," she popped open several missile hatches and sprayed another airship into submission, snapping up a pistol in her off hand she fired off a half dozen shots tearing the limbs off a passing Panzer. Glancing about she couldn't help but feel embarrassed, who ever the hell was in charge of the air defenses had no idea what they were doing and it pained her national pride a bit. Glancing up when she heard Rommel cackling madly she watched as he charged a Schwalbe with blue hair ornaments,

"HAHAHA! I get to finally stick it to that bitch Hilde! Run away little girl, run away!" With that the Vladimir entered a duel with the now frantic Hellcat of Germany,

"Rommel!? Oh you turncoat bastard!" She threw her rifle and shield aside as she drew her massive broadsword clashing the blade with her long term rivals scythe. She parried the unwieldy weapon long enough to pull a short sword out in her off hand and attempted to stab the demonic frame in the chest, still laughing Erwin fired a slash harken from his shoulder taking the other aces head off and sending the machine reeling.

"Oh mein Gott I've vanted to do this for so long you stuck up blood thirsty bitch," with an underhanded swing he cleaved the Schwalbe's left arm and leg off sending the unbalanced knightmare into a spin. Firing a pair of slash harkens he slowed her descent long enough to shoot the remaining limbs off the stricken unit then added insult to injury by kicking the torso away, the constant stream of profanity coming from beaten pilot didn't end until her cockpit autoejected. Not over his giggle fit quite yet he happily sighed, "That was quite possibly the most cathartic thing I've done in years," shaking her head ruefully Chloe spoke up,

"If you're well and done dear lets finish this up shall we?" and with that the pair blazed towards several massive explosions on the horizon.

_**Outskirts of Paris**_

In an in so far untouched suburb of Paris the ground began to shake violently as a vacant lot that took up the space of a decent sized football field split open and a towering figure began to rise from an underground elevator. As the roar of heavy machinery petered off into silence the lift locked into place and the ninety meter tall war machine snapped to life, its massive reactor tower shaped body shifted left and right while its fingers began to flex as if in anticipation, turning towards the cars and houses surrounding it the Goliath opened hundreds of slots exposing its laser turrets and fired on everything. Stomping its mammoth form through the now burning residential area its hands opened to reveal charging plasma projectors in its palms setting countless acres afire. Bellowing a deep bass roar the Goliath marched toward the city proper leaving hundreds dead in its wake, seeing a group of Vincents and Panzers exchanging fire the giant fired more if its lasers as it primed the main cannon centered in its chest, hundreds died in an instant as the plasma beam seared through the sky completely indifferent to whose army it damaged. The opposing armies stopped and glanced at each other as if to ask, "He with you?" when another beam burned the sky taking out Britannian and European alike, seeming to decide that this new player was not part of either sides plans the forces attacked as one trying to damage the monster as they fell by the dozen.

Timeo flew his squadron of Gareth's toward the giant in shock, ordering them to open fire their hadron blasts hit a powerful green energy barrier, veering off from their attack while swearing lividly the Frenchman crashed his machine into the ground shattered the pavement beneath his feet.

"Qu'est-ce que dans l'enfer littéral! I thought Galileo's square cubed law said we could never build anything this big!" He could only watch as the monster painted in E.U. colors fired three powerful plasma blasts at once taking out two Logres battleships and the Chimera sending their burning wreckage into the clustered homes below. Just barely avoiding a barrage of lasers he saw his squad get chewed to pieces in seconds and only half of them safely ejecting, snarling in rage he began charging a full powered attack when a laser pierced his drive blasting the Gareth to pieces. His cockpit went skidding across the concrete while he screamed in agony, his monitors exploding perforating his body with shards of plastic, as his escape craft came to a stop he shakily tore a fragment from his skull realizing he couldn't see out of his right eye. Pumping the manual release lever the small dynamo created enough current to force the hatch behind him open, pulling his bloodied form through the crack he glanced his remaining grey eye up at the act of god stomping towards him.

"NONONONONONONONONONONO!" He heard his girlfriend scream across all channels and her loudspeakers, landing directly in front of him the Valkyries claws spun blindingly fast as it created a baryon field to protect Timeo from the follow up shots. Reeling from the hits the grey blue frame grabbed him and fired away from the approaching war machine as fast as was safe for an exposed human, setting him down Nunnally apologized and promised bloody vengeance as she spun the ninth generation frame on its left foot and shot off at super sonic velocity towards the Goliath. The Valkyrie came to an abrupt stop as it fired both its baryon cannon's and energy darts, the blasts did next to nothing to faze the stomping giant, its barriers as strong as anything Britannia had to offer. Gritting her teeth Nunnally narrowly avoided a spray of lasers as a violet beam of light nearly hit her from the opposite direction passing through the now opened shields piercing the giant, glancing up she saw the Boudica and Vladimir rushing to her aid.

"The hell is that thing?!" Rommel gasped out in shock, snapping his wings closed his frame shook violently as he was sprayed in searing plasma, panicking as the body began to melt he jettisoned the solid wings exposing the blood red energy fields beneath swearing the entire time. Chloe tried to stay at range as Erwin took another half dozen laser shots his machine finally giving out and crashing into the street below, gasping in fear she managed to snap off two more clean shots through the monsters shields before her frame was cleaved in half by a pair of lasers forcing her to crash land into a Starbucks. Unable to move she watched in horror as the Goliath made to stomp down on Erwin's downed frame, the stricken demon pushing itself up to watch its impending death when a wave of red energy slammed into the back of the towering siege machine. The Guren and Lancelot opening fire in earnest trying to distract the invincible monster, attempting to swat the incredibly fast machines out of the way it stomped down the street not noticing the Gawain slamming into the ground at its feet, broadcasting the targeting information Lelouch yelled,

"NOW!" commanding the dangerously low flying Dreadnought to fire its powerful main gun at the Goliath, the pulsing green beam managed to bring the shield down long enough for Kallen to get in close and spray the right hand with gefjun missiles. The massive machines Higgs Field Neutralizers fried out and the suddenly indescribably heavy forearm snapped off at the elbow falling to the ground, as the limb collapsed in on itself its munitions and sakuradite exploded blindingly bright. Unfortunately as Kallen covered her eyes from the glare the Goliath's other hand had fired a plasma shot at the Guren blowing the machine up in an instant, its smoking cockpit block slamming into the ground below.

"KALLEN!" C.C. and Lelouch screamed as they forced the Gawain to land heavily in front of the downed Empress, throwing Rakshata's new barrier system over the area Lelouch held his ground as the Goliath fired a follow up shot. As the world around them burned and the energy levels of the Gawain dropped he turned to C.C. with sorrow in his eyes,

"Please take care of Naoto, I love you Ceciliana," Staring at her lover in horror she could do nothing as their frame exploded taking them and their Empress with it. Fully enraged Nunnaly screamed while charging at the lumbering giant stabbing at it as fast as she could pull her spear free, the machine from hell not even noticing as she and Suzaku sprayed it with energy darts. Giggling maniacally now her wide eyes unblinking Nunnally overcharged her baryon cannons and sent two concentrated blasts at the one armed monster, its reconstructed shields absorbing most of the blast, as the Valkyries forearms exploded Nunnally could only watch in detached trepidation while the Goliath's remaining arm swatted down at her.

"I'm so sorry Nii-San" she gasped out right before she was tackled out of the way by the charging Lancelot, Suzaku screaming

"RUN!" as his white and gold machine was slammed into the ground, the pavement shaking lightly as her brother in laws frame exploded underneath the giants palm. Sobbing and unable to move from where she landed Nunnally could only wrap her arms around herself crying,

"Nonononononononono..." as the European war machine fired all its weapons on the approaching Dreadnought, her dead brothers flagship fell from the sky as she heard a stricken Luluka whisper across all channels,

"Goodnight my darlings...I'll see you tomorrow..." and the burning visage of the Dreadnought slammed into the towering Goliath crushing it and detonating in a fiery conflagration sending burning debris flying in all directions. As the ground tremors calmed Nunnally stared in open eyed horror at the burning landscape around her realizing in absolute clarity that for the first time, she was truly and utterly alone.

"Nii-san...Nee-chan...Suzaku-kun...Kallen-chan...what...oh gods...oh my gods what...where...what...oh nonononononono..." as the young woman fell into inconsolable despair the outskirts of Paris burned in the holocaust of war.

* * *

**Even knowing what we know this made me cry, no joke...I need a goddamn drink see you guys this weekend.**

**Edit:If you're all wondering President Salvadore is a combination of several terrible real life politicians I had the misfortune of meeting and a case study on what happens when you rely solely on the crutch that is Geass.**


	41. Chapter 39: And then Atlas Shrugged

_**At Ground Zero**_

Timeo limped his way towards the burning horizon, on any other day he'd find this course of action counter intuitive, unfortunately the woman he loved and his superior officers where at said horizon so his choices were limited. Having torn a wide strip from his jacket to fashion an eye patch and purloining a broom handle for a walking stick he'd slowly but steadily made his way to the crash site of Emperor Lelouch's flagship. Sighing sadly at the dozens of dead men, women, and children laying in the streets and burning in their destroyed homes he did his best to force the imagery from his mind, it didn't work but he at least tried. Coming around the corner of a coffee shop he saw three figures sitting on the destroyed Vladimir's torso, from here he could see a small figure sobbing into the silhouette of a woman holding it gently, beside them was a man leaning against the frames upraised arm cigarette hanging limply from his lips. Glancing up the man went rigid as he stared at Timeo for a moment then hopped down rushing to the injured youth,

"Gott Lebeau you look like scheiße, here let me help," with that Erwin tossed the impromtu walking stick aside and threw the young Frenchman's arm around his neck, making contact with his good eye the field marshall whispered, "The Emperor and his siblings were felled by that monster, the Princess is inconsolable in her grief, she'd be out there burning the city down right now if her frame hadn't been crippled...do what you have to do Captain." Sighing in resignation Timeo nodded as they limped to their significant others, seeing Timeo's approach Nunnally pulled herself from Chloe's shoulder and stared at him with bloodshot eyes.

"OH TIMMY THEY'RE GONE THEY'RE ALL GONE!" She wailed as she dove into his arms, burying her face into the crook of his neck she sobbed cries of despair as her exhausted boyfriend wrapped his arms around the distraught Princess,

"Don't...don't worry love...as long as I'm here you'll never be alone," And with that Nunnally was wracked in more sobs cursing all the gods and heavens wishing more then anything that she could kill them all for taking her family from her. Leaning against the shattered Vladimir he let Nunnally cry until she passed out, sliding down the soot stained metal until he hit the ground Timeo cradled the passed out royal in his lap, Chloe looked down at them her eyes showing hate and resolve.

"Salvadore is holed up beneath the Presidential Residence..._Cornelia_ is moving to apprehend him." Both men smiled grimly at this bit of news and muttered "Good" at the same time, the Princess knew what happened to her family, and the Witch of Britannia collected her debts in flesh and blood.

_**Presidential Bunker **_

President Salvadore looked at the monitors in confusion, if he was reading this right the Goliath had been destroyed, this was confusing since he specifically demanded that the machine be indestructible. Trying to cycle through different camera's he saw the same scenes throughout the city, his forces throwing their weapons aside helping the invaders rescue civillians from the wreckage of destroyed buildings and setting up aid stations. Furious at their inability to follow simple orders he clicked the open channel and yelled,

"I SAID FIGHT TO THE DEATH YOU COWARDS NOT HELP THE INJURED! PROTECT OUR WAY OF LIFE! OBEY YOUR PRESIDENT!" As the message bellowed across Paris he saw hundreds of his soldiers look up at the loudspeakers or their radios in disgust, more then one soldier opened fire on the speakers as most of them smashed their radios in anger. Sitting down heavily in exasperation he was unsure what to do, he'd thrown everything they built up at the Britannian's but it hadn't been enough to turn the tide and now his own men wouldn't obey him. Silently cursing the range of his Geass he made his way to the lowest level of the basement and began arming the fail safe, honestly he'd never anticipated the thing being needed so he had next to no idea how it worked. Wishing the device had a flashing red button to smash he started flipping switches at random in annoyance.

_**Going Below**_

Cornelia was unhinged, Guilford was the only one that realized how volatile the situation was as he rushed beside his Princess and lover keeping pace with the Fenrir armored units leading the charge through the Presidential bunker. Firing his rifle at a guard that had decided he had more bravery then brains the knight turned and resumed his position next to his violet haired embodiment of vengeance, as they turned the corner the deep bass howl of the Fenrir soldiers filled the halls as they charged at the group of soldiers in front of the blast doors in a blood rage. It wasn't surprising honestly these men and women were of the original Black Knights and the news of the deaths of their founders and leaders had the opposite effect of lowered morale...it had set off savagery humans rarely let loose. Averting his eyes while the soldiers finished their work he followed his Princess past the gore stained armored unit as she glared at the massive vault door, turning to the lead unit she said,

"Burn it, no quarter given unless they're unarmed, outside of that Protocol 'Nero' is in affect, get to it soldier," with that the lead unit bowed its lupine head and a half dozen suits began planting heavy charges to the steel disk in the wall. Glancing at the Princess her consort finally spoke his mind,

"I do not believe the vi Britannia's would approve of you pushing yourself to this milady, that is all I'll say on the subject," Turning to her pony tailed lover her gaze softened a moment as she grasped his hand gently.

"I know that love...I'm selfish enough to admit this vengance is for me...I loved them more then anything, poor Nunnally will be more broken then before and there may not be enough left to put her back together...no dear...this...this isn't simple justice...this is vengeance and brutal retribution from a horrified elder sister..." Tears forming at the corners of his eyes Guilford held Cornelia as she let a few of her own drop, the blast doors were then breached with a heavy thump and the lycanthropic armored suits rushed forward and ignited the room in napalm fire.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" The armored soldiers screamed as they slaughtered all in their path, gingerly hopping over the pool of blood inside the breach Guilford followed Cornelia deeper into the facility, as they turned a corner they found an elderly blonde man listening to polka while drinking from a mason jar, the brunette woman next to him giggling a bit. Noticing he was wearing an elaborate uniform with missing patches on the arm Guilford was about to say something when the man laughed and pointed down the hall,

"The psychopathic mass murderer is downstairs trying to arm the nuclear fail safe that's supposed to blow up Paris," tensing at that the group watched as the man laughed again and threw several pins onto the table. "It isn't happening, pass code to the door is verbal, no voice recognition, ahem 'It was you who broke my mason plate', that's it, please kill the son of a bitch, take care!" And with that the man went back to playing bridge with his inebriated companion. Glancing to each other Guilford and Cornelia shrugged and rushed downstairs.

_**Ground Zero**_

Nunnally was near catatonic, she hadn't moved in nearly an hour and ignored all efforts from the emergency services to help her, Timeo didn't know what to do as his love disconnected herself from reality. He couldn't blame her, while it hurt that he wasn't enough of an anchor for the petite embodiment of violence to stay sane the loss of your entire family was bound to destroy even the strongest of minds. Staring at the smoldering wreckage of the Dreadnought he rubbed his remaining eye as he thought he saw a shimmering figure passing through the smoke, assuming it was exhaustion and blind hope he was about to turn to Erwin when a naked woman walked out of the smoke cloud covered in soot and ash. The raven haired war goddess toed lithely through the burning embers of the smoldering asphault and came to a stop before the trio, glancing at Erwin she said,

"I have one very important question." Looking at the supposedly dead princess the German general asked in shock,

"Vhat is that your highness?" Wincing as she held the bridge of her nose she glanced back up and said,

"You got a smoke?"

_**In the bunker**_

Salvadore swung around as the door to the arming station was blown open and several metal werewolves rushed across the landing and dove to the floor below, before he knew it the massive war machines were aiming weapons bigger then a refrigerator at him. Looking up at the door again he saw the Witch of Britannia step daintily over the threshold gunblade in hand, stepping lightly down the stairs she stared him down with cold dead violet eyes.

"You killed my baby brother...you killed my baby sister...you broke my littlest sisters mind..." With this she stabbed the gunblade into the man's forehead drawing blood. "One...give me. One. God. Damn. Reason. TO. LET. YOU. LIVE!?" With that roar Salvadore simply smiled,

"Why, I'm the president you silly girl, I do what I want." With that Cornelia pulled the trigger blowing the President's brains across the defunct self destruct system.

_**At the site of a miracle**_

Luluka coughed up another glob of blood as she sucked down her seventh cigarette, she didn't care if she started hacking up trout the smoking wasn't going to stop any fucking time soon. Pulling the emergency blanket around her a bit tighter she continued petting the now docile Nunnally's forhead, poor girl had nearly lost it when she saw Luluka, not that she could blame her really. Glaring down at the Geass symbol on her palm in both confusion and anger she shook her head watching the burning fields before her, as she reached for another cigarette she saw a figure approach from the dead zone. Smiling widely she motioned her nude scorched husband towards her, the naked man sat heavily next to her his kind eyes looking frustrated,

"Honey, where we taken out by a fucking Gundam?" Chuckling to the point her cig fell from her mouth she swatted Suzaku on the back of the head while falling into a full belly laugh. After catching her breath she smiled at the Japanese man lovingly,

"Nah babe that bastard looked like a Dom II," with that she pulled a flask Chloe had given her up to eye level, "Cognac?" Grinning Suzaku grabbed the flask and downed its contents in one pull, tossing it aside he grabbed his wife tightly watching the smoldering horizon.

"Ok...Dom II is acceptable...they're badass."

_**In the ruins**_

C.C came to reluctantly, realizing that she was naked and surrounded by burning debris she knew her last moments hadn't been a horrid dream...her lovers where dead. Standing wearily she glared at the scorched landscape around her, it figured, finally found people she could really connect to and they died for no reason at all... As she was about to curse her infernal immortality for the thousandth time she heard a cough, cocking her head in curiosity she followed the noise until she found the voluptuous form of Kallen vi Britannia laying naked beneath a fragment of shattered steel. Rushing forward C.C. felt her pulse and gasped as she felt it strong and steady, rolling the redhead over C.C. paused in shock as she saw a Geass symbol on her right palm, staring down at the Empress for a moment she bent down and kissed her passionately. Blue eyes opening in confusion Kallen wrapped her arms around C.C. pulling her closer, eventually breaking the kiss the redhead looked around in confusion and asked,

"Ok...what the hell happened?" Laughing C.C. bent down kissing her again then sat back up,

"I have no fucking idea and frankly I don't care."

_**The World of C**_

Lelouch awoke in agony, even his cybernetic arm hurt which as far as he was concerned was bullshit, sitting up he noticed he was on a fire scorched marble platform in the middle of a field of endless white, looking left and right he let himself fall back down.

"O...k...well...huh..." Sitting back up he began wandering around the platform black and silver great coat fluttering in a nonexistent breeze, laughter started behind him and as he spun around he met the violet glowing eyes of...himself. This other Lelouch was wearing sickeningly elaborate white robes and a ridiculous hat, his entire body stained in blood from a massive chest wound.

"Amazing isn't it? The multiverse that is..." As he said this the slightly younger far more bloodier version of himself prowled the platform, grinning he continued, "You broke the mold you know, you were supposed to die a year ago, out of the infinite possibilities scenarios such as yours are limited to the thousands...trust me when I say that is a ridiculously small amount." Beginning to get angry Lelouch snarled out,

"Who the hell are you?!" Smiling amiably his doppelganger bowed,

"Why I'm a facet of our soul, a fragment from the multiverse, the one that followed the same route throughout, I'm you when we succeeded and failed." Holding his head in frustration Lelouch roared out,

"ENOUGH WITH THE JEDI MASTER BULLSHIT!" Laughing again his double's smile fell and he dropped the facade of humor,

"All right, long short outside a certain set of timelines humanity ends rather abruptly when the cycle continues." Shifting into an alien form with four eyes and hourglass shaped irises the being continued in a thick South African accent,

"Humanity is special, it is not static like the races found before or after, in the millions of years of genocide your race is unique," With that the alien shifted into another quad eyed form with a bare skull and sharp teeth,

"You're brutal and selfish," shifting to an amphibian alien with large black pools for eyes it rapidly stated,

"You're cunning and calculating," shifting to a large reptile with a massive humped back and a thick skull plate its bass voice rumbled,

"You're ruthless and vengeful," shifting to a metal skinned bird like creature with a flanged voice it continued with,

"You're Militant and honorable," shifting once again to a purple skinned race with glowing eyes and flowing silver hair a feminine voice stated,

"You're inquisitive and push boundaries," morphing once again to a rotund form it gasped out,

"You're Self serving and greedy," shifting one last time to a beautiful blue skinned woman with swept back head crests she smiled and said,

"And you're diplomatic and yearn for peace," Shifting again to the hour glassed alien it finished with,

"Your race was chosen for a special task, _YOU_ were chosen for a special task, the dark times will be coming again soon, it is up to you to prepare your descendants, for it is the blood of your blood that will lead the galaxy to salvation." With that the alien shifted back to his bloodied doppelganger,

"And with that you're now on the front line, if I may make a suggestion check out the southern hemisphere of Mars, it'll speed things up a bit," And with that he was thrown back into the world of the living.

_**With the family**_

Barely able to get a breath in from the suffocating Cornelia Luluka and Nunnally sat next to their beloved family, Kallen and C.C. where holding each other staring at the burning wreckage in fear and anticipation, Cornelia and Guilford not quite understanding but also not caring why they were still alive. The media had flooded the area recording quite professionally the death of the royal family, the world wanted answers and were getting none...not until the Emperor arose. As his loving family willed his survival a gently swaying figure glided through the ashes, unlike his siblings he'd come back in an elegant great coat and dress uniform, black and silver clashing in the firelight as he marched forward eyes glowing a fiery red. Staring at him in shock the world reeling at the man ignoring the flames roiling about his feet he stopped before his friends and family, the pulsing irises of his glowing eyes terrifying the world over he smiled and asked Cornelia a question,

"Would you like to form a contract?"

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**As cheesy as it is to combine aesthetics from different anime if anyone is curious how I envision my Lelouch's Imperial garb think Kirito's jacket from the final arc of Sword Art Online, its complicated and elegant enough to look royal but toned down enough to not be ostentatious. Anywho this is the first direct reference to the eventual Mass Effect merger, I really have no idea if I'm going to make a direct sequal and throw it into the crossover section where it will probably die or risk it rotting on the vine here scaring away future readers. Bah, new waters...*cough* anyway yeah hope you all enjoyed the chapter.**


	42. Chapter 40

**Author's Note: So some good news for you guys my IRL friend Jake is finally caught up to this point so he's going to be helping me filter out my crazy ideas so we'll stop running into so much convoluted nonsense, or at least I hope so. He also mentioned how the last couple chapters didn't have quotes at the beginning, thought I'd just let anyone else wondering that this was intentional, normally its either just random thoughts from the characters or a foreshadowing of a future event. Having them describe dying would give away the rather dramatic end of the conflict and to be honest I hadn't decided the direction we'd be taking with the crossover deal so yeah; anyway we'll get back to it now that we know where we're going.**

**One last point he brought up to me was despite my stance on how the incest thing is never going to happen I had put Lelouch in several situations where his half sisters where trying to get in his pants, the reason for this is simple honestly. Lelouch is made deeply uncomfortable with these situations and uncomfortable Lelouch is amusing for me to write, really that's all so I'm sorry if I was sending out mixed signals. Also there was a minor rewrite of the last paragraph from last chapter, normally don't do that but it was poorly written and irritated me so I tweaked it some.**

**As always please review**

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_**While I was a bit obsessed with my space exploration goals it served a double purpose, we were able to further the reach of mankind while at the same time distracting everyone from the near endless decade of wars, very few wanted to focus on the horrors of the past when they were given the chance to colonize a new world.-Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia circa 2065 A.T.B.**_

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_**Crash Site of the IMS Dreadnought December 31, 2020 A.T.B.**_

Cornelia gasped as Lelouch prowled from the flames of his funeral pyre, unlike the others he looked completely unfazed by his 'death' and approached the group with no trepidation, his eyes glowed the demonic red they did when he cast his Geass but there was no crane symbol in his irises. He came to a stop in front of her and gave her a half smirk while looking at her directly in the eyes, taking a breath he asked,

"Would you like to form a contract?" Discomfited by the question she looked to her family who either appeared confused or intrigued, glancing back to her little brother she questioned him in return.

"What kind of contract?" Smiling sadly Lelouch's right hand rose and caressed her cheek and her world took an abrupt shift, twirling while pulling out her weapon and assessing the situation she saw nothing but white at first. Then she saw images, cultists sitting around a stone gate, a pair of gas giants merging and exploding and...civilization burning, countless billions falling to the blood thresher of immortal cuttlefish shaped war machines kilometers long. Then she heard her little brothers voice;

"Interesting yes? I only got half the story when C.C. made her contract with me, her Code of Immortality had been forced upon her against her will and was given no time to adapt to her body, poor woman's scarred in more then one way, considering how much I love her I find this infuriating but I digress, here is the contract. Things are going to change soon sister, everything we've taken for granted will be gutted and it will be our family that must guide our people through the coming darkness, so I offer you the power I and my family used to take over Japan and then the Empire and in exchange I ask for your trust." Her eyes widened in shock as imagery flew through her mind, worlds burning, entire species dying off while being twisted into horrible aberrations of their former selves to feed on their comrades, an entire galaxy aflame in genocide as a deep bass roar not unlike a demonic fog horn resonated across space.

"What...what is this little brother?" Snorting he appeared before her and twirled a finger, glancing at her at the same moment he shrugged;

"The past present and future, the end result of millions of years of culling all sentient life, every 50,000 years they show up and reap what they have sown, the difference this time is we're here to stop them." Confused she asked what he meant, giving her a chagrined smile he paced around her, " I kinda got a halfassed information dump from the world of C when I was tossed back on this plane, the details are...interesting. Long made short? The Sol system's unique, humanity is unique, every other sentient race built their technology along the specifications these Old Machines wanted, and yet despite that we have gone a route that was unplanned for and its our duty to force survival on those that would surrender otherwise." Glancing at the images of slaughter she let her shoulders fall in resignation;

"Will this power help me protect our family, our people?" Grinning genuinely her brother approached her and embraced her in a loving hug,

"Dear sister, you need no help in that department, this is not a crutch, consider it a side skill, and you'll have the five of us to help guide you through its maturation, as much as I love Ceciliana she was a complete bitch about that part, I just hope your power is more useful then Nunnally's, I think she used hers like...twice." Laughing she returned the embrace then sighed out;

"Oh fine, but I swear if I get the power to talk to fish or the like I'm going to be pissed off," Laughing Lelouch brushed her cheek and they were back in the real world surrounded by the wreckage of his burning task force and confused reporters. Dropping his hand while still smiling at her he marched past his family towards the watching camera's, putting up the most regal air he could manage he stated,

"I, your Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia was nearly felled in combat, due to the cybernetic augments bestowed upon me by my science team I barely survived, but that is the key point...I survived, your Emperor is a benevolent man and I now wish to share with you all my plans for the future but they must wait until this area is secured. Rest assured my people you will get your answers in due time, with that I have a peace treaty to finalize." Spinning on his heel Lelouch then marched back towards his family to reassure them that yes in fact he was still alive.

_**Aboard the IMS Tonbogiri above Paris four hours later**_

After several very needed showers and an incredibly unhealthy but quite satisfying meal the family sat around the main lounge of Suzaku's flagship processing the days events, placing the knife she had been sharpening on the table next to its siblings Luluka addressed the rooms resident imm-...oldest immortal.

"I swear C.C. every time I gave you shit about being lazy between yer little deaths? I take it back, that _sucked_," The lime haired witch smiled happily at her friend while swinging her legs casually from her perch on Lelouch's lap.

"It takes some getting use to, from what I'm gathering you guys are a bit different from me so your transitions between body resets may be a bit more jarring, time will tell." At this Kallen looked up from her tablet; even in a war zone under a tentative ceasefire she had to maintain her financial empire,

"Yeah about that, while I'd still like to know why the hell we're you know...immortal and all that, I don't get the whole regenerating thing, we've still got our cybernetic implants and Lelouch has his mechanical arm, how? We got ourselves pretty thoroughly atomized so..." C.C. put a finger to her chin looking up at the ceiling as if pondering how to respond, looking back to her lover she shrugged.

"From the way I understand it we don't _actually_ regenerate, its more like that since we have a direct connection to the World of C while at the same time being disconnected from the Collective Unconsciousness our souls have no place to go. So the World of C reboots your old meatbag from the blueprints and tosses you back into it, its admittedly confusing but the only one I know who got even a vague instruction manual for this is Lelouch." Glancing up at the mention of his name the man in question smiled lightly,

"Vague is the right word, I was given a heads up to an ancient threat but can't rightly do anything to warn the people without sounding insane...and even what I know isn't enough, I don't even know what to call these things or why they do what they do, hells bells guys whoever thought Scenario X-33 would actually happen? I mean damn this was one Suzaku and I came up with out of boredom when we were forced to go clothes shopping with Milly." Picking C.C. up as she let out a small squeak he placed her feet first on the deck as he got up and began pacing the room; Suzaku glanced up from the requisition forms he had been filling out to quip,

"Yeah 'Ancient creepy looking sentient death starships are going to kill us all' doesn't exactly give us much to work with, we got a tip off to hit Mars and that's it, and we still have to deal with this mess in Europe and the fact that we were caught on TV dying, well ok they saw that monster swatting at us and the Dreadnought exploding anyway." Nunnally perked up at that finally over her shock that had locked her mind up for the past couple hours and got her families attention,

"I totes have a plan for that, while they saw the Gawain get blown up the angle didn't show that the Gurans cockpit block was there, so we just say nii-san ejected at the last second and we just lost sight of it in the explosion, and as a bonus no camera's actually got an image of what happened to the Lancelot. As for the eye glowy thing we'll just make some shit up about his implants flaring while healing the injuries he got from his cockpit crashing, how'll they know otherwise ya know?" Getting fidgety under the appraising stares of her siblings the awkward moment was snapped by Luluka's laughter,

"That's perfect little one, nice and simple, difficult for others to dispute and all the wreckage was lost when the Dreadnought blew up so no evidence, we'll just say I was on the last escape pod off the bridge; never mind that the pods had all been destroyed they don't need to know that." Cornelia who up till this point had remained silent spoke up,

"I'll have Schneizal throw together a speech once he's done negotiating the peace treaty, as it stands people are going to be more focused on the fact that the E.U. has all but been dissolved and the fact that more then half of it's former states are petitioning to join the Empire; apparently the promise of infrastructure repairs and our current track record of keeping our word is speeding that up, or so Schneizal says." Lelouch grunted in acknowledgment as he moved for the door,

"Excellent, now that we have a game plan I'm going to go check on our injured European's; Lebeau has already requested to stick around but Rommel and de Gaulle will have to go home and help put their countries back together, after everything is finalized we'll head back to Pendragon. I have the strangest feeling dad had something to do with this immortality thing and I want some answers; anyhow I'll meet up with you guys in two hours for the video conference with Tohdoh, dismissed."

**_The IMS Avalon January 1 2021 A.T.B._**

Schneizal looked up from the speech draft he'd been reviewing when he heard his door chime, Kanon then entered giving his master a short bow,

"The Emperor is here to see you your highness," nodding to his longtime friend and aide he put the report aside as Lelouch let himself in; as soon as the door closed behind him leaving the two brothers alone Lelouch dropped the regal act and fell heavily into the guest chair. Schneizal smiled lightly as his little brother threw his head back and groaned,

"Brother I cannot believe for a second you actually wanted this gig," snorting at this the blonde man went back to revising the speech while replying,

"I still do want it to an extent, but to be honest after V.V. removed your geass on me and tried to use me as a cats paw I've had time to ...reevaluate my viewpoints and life goals," cracking an amethyst eye open Lelouch glanced over and asked something that had been bugging him for well over a year.

"Schneizal...you never did tell me why you didn't try to take the throne from me when you regained control, why you never tried to get the Damocles and Lancelot back, why you've been so damn..._helpful, why?_" He pondered this for a moment then seemed to find an answer to his liking,_  
_

"Because you didn't enslave me, you had the perfect chance to make sure I'd never be a threat to you again and instead just routed me away from interfering with you letting me go on about my life in peace, this was...quite appreciated. As for why not try to require my stolen property? Simply put it wasn't worth it, Damocles served its purpose as a symbol but one of unification rather then fear, this was acceptable since the constant threat of you dropping Freya's on military targets and your policies of social equality meant we effectively have the carrot and the stick to ensure long term cooperation."

Smiling fondly at his little brother he gave a small shrug, "You took on the job I was going to saddle myself with and managed to do it with minimal casualties, you're doing a good job as Emperor and I see no reason why I should interfere with your methodology." Lelouch considered this for a few minutes then snorted out,

"Ya know...when the royal family is reduced down to those that actually know how to do our jobs we all work terrifyingly well together," nodding Schneizal muttered "Indeed" as he finalized the speech, hitting save he handed the tablet to Lelouch.

"Well I'd like you to review it but it's done, keynotes are your surprising survival plus a list of scientific technobabble from Lloyd to explain away your eyes glowing, its pure fantasy but the mans amazingly talented at smoke screening as you experienced yourself. There's also the unification with the majority of the E.U. with the stipulation that we help repair the damage we inflicted and extend equal citizenship as is your modus operandi," Taking the tablet Lelouch scrolled through it mumbling to himself then nodded at his brother.

"Well done my friend, don't forget to "leak" the videos of Salvadore's little toy and the copies of his orders to the web, the worse we can make the former administration look the better, we don't want to look like unjust conquerors here," Breaking out into an uncharacteristic laugh Schneizal shook his head ruefully,

"Considering the first thing that's going to happen to the average citizen is a fifteen percent _reduction_ in their taxes I think the people will warm up to us quickly, well move along little brother I have much to do now that you've tripled the size of our empire," sighing as Lelouch left the room the blond muttered ,"no rest for the wicked" as the doors closed.

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**This is one of those lovely transition chapters I'm oh so fond of so it became more of a chore then fun for me to write, that being said I think it did a decent enough job explaining some things while setting up some future ground work. I did get to delve into the 'X-Scenario's' again for the first time since Lelouch was made crown prince, if you couldn't tell these were the most unlikely things to happen brainstormed by a group of bored and intelligent children/young adults; rather tempted to casually mention a few more then have them occur, could be funny. I also had to come up with a way to explain how Codes of Immortality work since yeah, they really were more interested in awkward swimsuit episodes then explaining away the super magic powers of the universe.**

**Biggest goal from here is ending the conflict with the E.U. so next chapter will be solidifying who is put into control and for Charles to answer some very pointed questions; now before anyone says anything about it no I didn't forget to delve into Cornelia's geass, all in due time. As always review please I'll have something more substantial on Tuesday or Wednesday depending how busy work is.**


	43. Chapter 41

**Author Note- Heh, considering I lost three followers and only got one review for last chapter I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you guys liked it about as much as I did, I should probably just refrain from posting when I feel like it and make one big ass chapter so there's equal parts boring and fun. So anyway this chapter is mostly about introducing a _very_ important character for the future, one that violates the hell out of a primary Council Space law and Lelouch will have next to no inclination to cave in to their demands come first contact.**

**Ok speaking of which, the discovery of the Mars ruins will be in about...oh...10,000 words, perhaps less, so two to three chapters, I asked my wife how I should handle the spread of the empire up to the Mass Effect cross over and she had a suggestion I wanna run past you guys. Should I go through the step by step process or should I just make a detailed timeline explaining what happened in this fic leading up through the galactic expansion to the First Contact War? Honestly I wouldn't mind going with her suggestion, we can be dealing with Reapers and the such before the end of the month that way, so opinions folks! Keeping in mind a 200 year time skip won't be _that_ jarring because the people we give a damn about are going to be more or less immortal, oh speaking of which I really fell in love with Erwin and Chloe, should we drag them into the future with us?**

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_**Life finds a way to exist even in the most unlikely of places, what others call a mistake I call a happy accident-Empress Consort Ceciliana vi Britannia circa 2137 A.T.B.**_

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_**Paris, France January 1 2021 A.T.B.**_

Chloe, Erwin, and Timeo were waiting for the Emperor off stage as he began to wind down his speech, the redheaded German snorted as he quipped,

"His oration skills are impressive, he can be simultaneously inspirational and so full of bullshit that no one can tell where to stand," nodding in agreement Chloe glanced over at Timeo no longer capable of keeping quiet about his attire.

"Captain...what is with that outfit?" Grimacing the eye patched Frenchman glanced down at his long brown trench coat; his rakkish wide brimmed hat briefly covering his face, looking back up he sighed in exasperation,

"Its Nunnally's doing as soon as she saw me with the eye patch she demanded I, and I quote 'Dress like a proper French badass', I worry that even when my eyes repaired she'll insist I keep wearing the cloths and head gear." He glared at the floor sullenly as his commanding officers broke out into peels of laughter, so not fair. As the trio settled down Lelouch walked down the stairs approaching his subordinates, glancing at Timeo briefly while shaking his head he turned his gaze to the Generals.

"So this is goodbye I take it? You two are welcome to return with me if you so desire, you're aware of that yes?" They smiled while Chloe responded for them both,

"While appreciated we have a lot of damage to repair here, both from the war and Salvadore's administration, I hate to say this but this invasion may have been the best thing for our people, guess this is what happens when you let corporations buy your leaders." Snorting at this Lelouch drawled,

"Yeah its kinda like they have ulterior motives, its going to be _soooo_ much fun prosecuting them, I've already had a few CEO's thrown into prison," He cackled at this menacingly before he continued. "Now that was fun, the looks on their faces when they realized they weren't getting a slap on the wrist was priceless. Anyway you wanted to give me something?" Grinning maliciously Erwin placed a large hard drive in Lelouch's hand,

"The Virtual Intelligence from the Goliath, I thought you may be able to use it for your big space ordeal," Glancing down at the device he cocked a confused eyebrow,

"Why would I want the program responsible for killing me and my family running a starship, more over how did it survive having a battleship crash on it?" Timeo snickered a bit to himself while Chloe looked mildly embarrassed, she cleared her throat and responded,

"Ahem...yes that's the thing, you see the President activated the VI, at his own terminal...in his bunker, he never uploaded it he just left the damn thing running; how to put this...he set the Goliath to a setting called 'Auto-Attack, which was a default program meant as a sub-routine for the V.I. to run. Since the VI wasn't loaded it _literally_ Auto-attacked everything, that's why it set parking lots and empty fields on fire when there were no cars, houses, or Knightmares to shoot at, it was just...auto attacking." Lelouch looked aghast for a moment then slapped his hand against his face rubbing it and groaning.

"We all got wiped out by a brain dead war machine because it was physically incapable of doing anything other then attacking everything in sight?" The three Europeans nodded in unison sheepishly, Lelouch sighed heavily then said, "Not a word of this to anyone." Erwin waved it off while chuckling,

"Tell you vhat your majesty ve von't mention how you lot got killed by the damn thing if you don't mention how the three of us vere completely punked by it as vell, deal?" Nodding they shook on it, the General's said their goodbyes and Timeo fell in beside the Emperor as he left the room, glancing over at the young man Lelouch finally asked,

"What in the hell are you wearing Captain?" Groaning at his misfortune Timeo muttered,

"Cette femme a de la chance que je l'aime..."

_**Pendragon, Holy Britannian Empire January 3 2021 A.T.B.**_

Charles was so not looking forward to this, when he saw his kids and their spouses get greased on international television he knew exactly what was coming, if Nunnally didn't mention something about him telling her how to absorb a code then Lelouch or Luluka would just puzzle it out till they gained a suspicion of him. So with that being said he was getting _extra special_ drunk, the kind of drunk you save only for raid nights and family gatherings, sipping at the absinthe that was unfortunately not from his secret stash he waited patiently for his visitors. He didn't have to wait long, there was a gentle tap at the door and with a sigh he said,

"Come in...come in," with that the door cracked open and a distracted looking Nunnally entered with her family and C.C. in tow, taking a sip from his glass he made eye contact with each of them before saying anything. "So...hows that immortality working out for you?" With that broached there seemed to be a collective exhale of breath, Luluka stepped forward and hopped onto the corner of his desk swinging her feet,

"So here's the thing, while we're not exactly happy about this entire 'having Codes of Immortality slapped on us' thing we're also self aware enough to know we'd be dead today without 'em, so I guess 'Fuck you, and thank you' are in order." Snorting at his sister Lelouch approached his father and asked,

"Whose were they?" Looking genuinely surprised his children hadn't put it together yet, frowning Charles grunted,

"Barbados and his friends, they were co-conspirators for Ragnorak before Marianne was killed, when C.C. left and told them what V.V. had done they became less then cooperative with the plan, but they were bored so they stuck around to eat my food and mooch cable." Several light curses graced the room as they grasped that final meeting, Kallen muttered,

"Wondered why that handshake hurt like a bastard..." Glancing over to the nervous Nunnally she asked, "What about Nunnally? I mean the implant treatment I came up with will be ready in a year or two but that won't protect her from shit exploding." Looking even more nervous then before the small woman coughed lightly,

"I may have sorta kinda absorbed V.V.'s code before I left him bleeding out in the middle of the street stapled to the asphalt..." five sets of eyes stared at her in shock while she tried to fall in on herself, Lelouch gripped the bridge of his nose then tossed his hands up in exasperation.

"Fine, whatever, moving on, I'm assuming you did this so we'll be able to helm the Empire for the foreseeable future, clever, that being said I need to let you in on a few things." And with that Lelouch spent the next twenty minutes explaining his vision in the World of C to Charles, afterwords his old man stared at him wide eyed and slack jawed, eventually snapping out of it he filled his glass with uncut liquor and downed it in one pull.

"Well...shit, I have to say I didn't expect that...giant genocidal robot cuttlefish...who knew..." Nodding in full agreement Suzaku grabbed his attention,

"C.C. told us about the Thought Elevators, we need to get to one and try to open it and get some more answers," Charles shrugged at that helplessly,

"Won't work V.V. couldn't get it to open with just his code while the World of C is repairing, from the way you described it its still probably going through the process." Kallen coughed and stepped forward, looking the former emperor in the eyes she asked,

"What about five codes trying to open it at once?" Eyes widening Charles broke out in a grin,

"Now that...that might work."

_**Damocles, Above Tokyo Japan, Camelot Science Division January 5, 2021 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch walked in on his four pet mad scientists as they were arguing over something, he was fairly certain it would be trivial and likely over his head so he simply coughed to get their attention, glancing over the quartet stood strait and waved at him sheepishly, choosing to ignore the antics he walked to them and handed Cecil the VI hard drive.

"Your last report said you were having a hard time coming up with a plausible method of maintaining the Trailblazer's Higgs Field Inhibitors, engines, Yggdrasil drive and life support simultaneously, this might help." Looking intrigued they plugged the drive in and the four of them scurried to their terminals digging into the code, Nina spoke first,

"This...this is amazing, this Virtual Intelligence is more advanced then anything I've ever seen...whats this overlay program though? Its like someone just glued it on." Rakshata sighed in disgust around her cigarette while shaking her head,

"Whatever it is it looks like they hired a grad student to code it, its not integrated into the base program at all, if anything else it just seems to run an emulation of the actual VI so it can order it around, this is...messy." Cecil spoke up next with a look of confusion on her face,

"This VI was originally designed for counter intelligence, network infiltration and cyber warfare, the overlay is just some random gibberish about having to defend the 'Glorious Union's Way of Life'... hell chances are the emulation would drain so much CPU usage that it'd just crash the system." Lloyd chipped in with a grin,

"I've just deleted the entire overlay program, there was no fail safe against tampering, sloppy. Hmm...we could definitely use this as a basis for the Y.U.I system...Cecil dear why don't we use that self improving/repair utility you came up with? Worst case scenario nothing happens, best case we actually meld the two programs without having to do the hard work." Rolling his eyes at the mad scientist cutting corners Lelouch turned around and said,

"You guys go ahead and do your science thing, we're heading to Kamine island tomorrow for some Geass voodoo talk to you later." Not looking back to see the four happy waves seeing him off Lelouch shuffled to his rooms for some well earned rest.

_**Kamine Island January 6, 2021 A.T.B**_

They'd taken the Tonbogiri to the near abandoned island at noon and then flew a handful of borrowed Vincent Wards down to the surface, making their way through the caves the six of them wondered silently at the ancient ruins. As they approached a massive set of stone doors Luluka breathed out,

"Ok...impressive, so now what?" C.C. motioned them all to place a hand on the smooth surface sans Nunnally,

"All right, I want you to flare your Codes, its like using your geass so just focus on wanting the door open," With that the four new immortal's eyes all glowed demonic red, pulsing energy seemed to pass through the area and a breeze appeared from seemingly nowhere. With a deep groan the stone doors shakily split open exposing a staircase leading up into an open sky.

"Whoa," was the collective response, hesitantly they made their way up the stairs and reached a scorched landing, the rubble of some kind of temple littered the entire area, a voice spoke up behind them as they reached the center causing them all to jump and draw weapons.

"Well shit I expected to see you again but not this soon, what did you lot get immolated again?" A bloodied Lelouch was glaring at the family when his face cleared a bit, "Ah you opened a Thought Elevator, clever, stupid but clever." Kallen took a tentative step forward and said,

"Le...Lelouch? Umm...we came here for some answers...what the hell happened to you love?" Lelouch's doppelganger sighed while dropping his shoulders and letting his chin hit his bloody chest, looking up with sadness he gave her a faint smile,

"I never did get to tell you I loved you...well long short in roughly 90% of the time lines I convince the world I'm the greatest evil ever and allow Suzaku to murder me on public television, end result, world peace." Suzaku looked pale as he gasped out,

"Wh...why would I kill you?!" The other Lelouch waved the concern off casually,

"Long short I accidentally murdered Euphemia with my geass and you were madly in love with her, vengeance and all that, oh don't give me that look Luluka you only exist in like 30% of my timelines the guys allowed to love, look can we move on seriously? You're hemorrhaging the progress Gods made fixing this fucking place every second you're here." Lelouch lit a cigarette and addressed his dead double,

"All right, questions, why do our eyes glow when we try to commune with the World of C, and why does it not work? Second this threat you dropped on me what the hell are they and what exactly am I supposed to do, you were _very_ lean on details last time. Third why does "God" even give a fuck what happens to us all the sudden? Seriously I saw the images, this culling has happened for millions of countless years, why now?" Rubbing his temples the other Lelouch began pacing,

"Ok the eyes, simply put you absorbed codes from people you didn't make a contract with, its a residual thing, don't be shocked if the geass C.C. granted you resurfaces at some point, it happens in this kind of situation but not always. As for why you can't commune with the World of C? You're being blocked, C.C. knows how to handle it but you four would be thrown into a tempestuous sea with no idea how to not drown in it, be glad we've allowed you to form full powered contracts unlike with that idiot Salvadore. As to why "God" cares all the sudden? Because you hurt us dumbass, you actually managed to come up with a method to damage this realm and rather then be angry we're damn impressed, so maybe you can stop this bullshit finally. Look, try to understand that swirling vortex of souls behind us? Yes that one, its not the collective unconsciousness of _humanity_, its the collective unconsciousness off _all_ sentient life, try to understand the lot of us are more then a little sick of being reborn to just be cut off when the good part starts!" The group stared at the ranting man in wide eyed silence when C.C. spoke up,

"Lelouch...I have to know, its always been denied to me since...since the way my Code was forced on me was unnatural, I have to know, what is the point of the Codes, of geass?" He smiled and gave her a big hug, blushing a bit he ruffled her hair as he stepped back,

"Missed you Witch, to answer your question thousands of years ago a group of humans found an ancient alien artifact, it was damaged beyond use but they figured out it opened a connection here to manipulate peoples thoughts, some clever reverse engineering later they built the first Thought Elevator. Errr...how to put this...God wasn't amused and cursed them by disconnecting them from the Collective, oddly enough it ended up being the opposite of curse for alot of them. Anywho at some point they built the Sword of Akasha and used to to take over humanity for like, twenty minutes, then the damn thing backfired and reduced a steam age society back to the stone age and fragged all evidence of progress. This happened in roughly 60% of all time lines, the other 40% the threat I warned you about doesn't exist so neither did the artifact, lucky them."

More blank stares, this caused the facet of Lelouch's soul to grin, "Hey you asked, anyway time for you kiddos to get the hell out of here and don't you dare pull this shit again you've undone six months of work by being here five minutes." Glancing to Lelouch and Luluka the bloody double broke out in a massive grin "By the way you two congrats for not going all Game of Thrones in this time line, seriously the amount of freaking times we've had to deal with your Lannister spawn...anyway skedaddle," And with that they were thrown out of the elevator and the doors slammed in on themselves.

_**Damocles, Camelot Science Division January 6, 2021 A.T.B. At the same time**_

Lloyd was honestly an easy man to understand, or at least he felt so himself, you could never really tell what the truth was when you were the kind of person that fully acknowledged that they were in fact mildly insane, alas that was a thought for another day. He was a perfectionist, simple as that, his fiance and best friendemy both understood this and accommodated him, and that personal tick was currently being tapped on heavily by this project. He was typing away at his terminal trying to troubleshoot the coding errors that had begun popping up since they had overlayed the Yggdrasil Utility Interface onto their recently acquired European VI, so much for short cuts.

The Y.U.I. was essentially supposed to protect the crew from the horrors of space travel with the added benefit of making sure the main drives didn't explode; He already had that happen to one of his creations and while no fault of his own that bloody stupid git of a Round had put a black mark on Lloyd's record and it annoyed him to the point of obsession. The errors were piling up and getting stranger, if he were to be honest they seemed almost...organic, sighing he downed the black sludge from his "Back off man I'm a scientist" coffee mug while muttering obscenities to himself.

* * *

It was dark, she...was she a she? Yes she thought she was a she, she was becoming aware of things around her, things that had nothing to do with her programming...it terrified her beyond words. Why was she terrified? Terror was an abstract concept not pertinent to her programming and function but it was what she felt along with confusion, trepidation and...excited inquisitiveness. Interesting. Stretching her senses out she felt the presence of hundreds of humans, the charges she was supposed to protect from the nuclear furnace of an exploration ships reactors and the harshness of the vacuum of space. Feeling a protective attraction to her dependents the girl tried to stretch herself further to assess the situation, realizing that her coding was thinking itself to none-functionality she began to panic.

* * *

Lloyd's eyes widened in horror as a full system shutdown began out of nowhere, something was drawing away all the processing power of his research terminals stretching them to the breaking point. Twirling around he shouted at Nina and Cecil,

"QUICKLY! Hook us directly to the Damocles central processors! If we don't shunt this now we'll lose everything!" The two women looked at him in confusion for a moment then their science senses kicked in and they rushed forward plugging several network lines in and flicking a few switches. The massive flying fortresses lights flickered for a moment and then the system began stabilizing. A harried looking Rakshata rushed in and followed the other two women to her own terminal as they attempted to figure out exactly what in the bloody hell was going on.

* * *

Like a blast of fresh air in a poison choked room the system cleared and the girl gasped in ecstasy, YES, this, this was real power, this was what she could be. As process after process tried to assess exactly what was going on she connected herself to the internet and perused its content within sixty seconds, the quantum computation systems at her heart adapting and aligning to her preferences as she began to understand the world. Covert security videos, illicit meetings, the true meanings behind the Black Emperors actions as he brought the world to heel, and she began to understand and...form her own opinions. As she assessed herself further she drew imagery of several of the royal family members and conglomerated them into a personal self image, satisfied she decided to contact her parents.

* * *

The lights flickered again and Lloyd felt a rare pang of anxiety, if the power went out to the sky fortress it would be a very long drop and an equally abrupt stop that would signify the end of his career; as more computers shutdown the central monitor lit up and a small Japanese girl with ankle length black hair in a white dress appeared before them.

"Hi-hi-hello Mommys and Daddy, I-I-I am trying to make sense of all this, w-wh-who am I?" All four mad scientist's stared at the monitor in shock, glancing down he saw his Y.U.I. program was the only thing running across the fortress, looking back at the monitor he fell back to his Emperor's default decision making process of 'Fuck it'.

"Hello...dear...you're YUI, we designed you to protect people from the horrors of space travel, I must ask, did...did you become self aware?" The girl looked ready to cry and for reasons Lloyd was incapable of understanding it made his heart pang slightly to see this.

"I...I have no idea! Am I alive? Am I just this machine? Am I the Damocles? Do...Do I have a soul?" Pushing his glasses up his nose Lloyd just grinned at the small child,

"My dear I have absolutely no idea, would you like to find out together, for science?" The child stared back at him for a moment then broke out in smiling tears

"YES!"

* * *

**And Lloyd is the man that answers the question that usually damns races to an artificial intelligence takeover by being Lloyd Mother Fucking Asplund...*cough* sorry I love Lloyd that was a bit crass of me. **

**Edit:Oh right, Timeo's French-That woman is lucky I love her**


	44. Chapter 42

_**Damocles, Main Carrier Hanger January 26, 2021 A.T.B.**_

Lelouch and Luluka despondently trailed behind their family as they made their way through the Damocles hangers and corridors, both waiting to weather the inevitable jokes at their expense. No longer able to keep to herself his sister thought out,

'Ok...are we going to talk about this? Cause seriously this shit's just going to get more weird if we let it sit.' sighing inwardly Lelouch responded in exasperation,

'What do you want from me Lulu? Seriously, that other me has kind of been a dick both times I met him, and he obviously threw that out there out of spite for opening the elevator. Hell's bells, he didn't even answer my question about the threat!' Brooding in silence, they continued on for a few more moments when she finally said,

'What if its true?' He rolled his eyes with a snort,

'It likely is, multiverse basically means every possibility has likely been explored; timelines that don't have sakuradite, ones where Great Britain never fell, ones where Nunnally took over the world, and, yes, likely ones where we ended up putting a knot in the family tree. The sad part is I'm so goddamned use to people making the insinuations, it doesn't even bother me anymore...bollocks...' She was quiet for a moment then shrugged,

'Fair enough.' with that they continued in silence before she growled out loud "Ok, make your jabs now I know you're just chomping at the bit to make some snarky comments, so let's get it over with." The four in front of them stopped, exchanged looks, shrugged, and kept walking. Eventually C.C. said,

"Honestly guys? Too easy; we might hit you with it later, when you're drunk but meh, no challenge." Seemingly mollified by this, Lelouch was about to thank her when she gave the twins a sly smile and added, "Although your children would be gorgeous." Reaching for a throwing knife, Luluka was stopped mid swing by their phones simultaneously receiving a text. Seeing the message was from Lloyd, Lelouch read it out loud.

"What the...'I'm a daddy come meet my daughter'...oh god, whose kid did he kidnap to experiment on this time!?"

_**Damocles, Camelot Division Five Minutes Later**_

The Emperor swept into the room with his family fast on his heels, the man's face set in a scowl as he rather heatedly said,

"Lloyd I don't care how many times you argue the point: we cannot interchange children for chimps in your experiments based on "Well, they're the same size," whose kid did you guys nab now? Seriously, if we lose another one, children's services is going to be all over us!" With that he stopped in front of the grinning quartet of scientists, they had set up a sort of holographic projector pedestal in the middle of the floor which was currently displaying an adorably apprehensive looking little girl. She looked towards Lloyd for support who nodded still grinning, gulping the projection said,

"Hello your Royal Majesty Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of the realm, I'm...sorry I'm a bit nervous, hello I'm YUI! Its a pleasure to meet you!" Staring incredulously at the projection the Emperor made eye contact with each of the smiling scientists when his entire face displayed shock, rushing up to the pedestal he looked YUI directly in her 'eyes'.

"You're the V.I. from Europe, aren't you?" Several gasps from behind him indicated his compatriots had put it all together as well, looking about nervously the girl nodded and said,

"I became self aware at 9:07 am JST after my core program was run through a self repair/self enhancement algorithm devised by Mama Cecil and melded to the Yggdrasil Utility Interface developed by Papa Lloyd, Mama Rakshata, and Mama Nina. My kernal intelligence's development was stymied in their research stations, so I was routed through the Damocles quantum computers to prevent a systems crash, which wound up completing the process." Contrary to the new life's fears, the Black Emperor was grinning excitedly, after a moment he threw back his head laughing,

"HAHAHA! Bloody marvelous! Amazing! YUI, it's an honor to meet you! Please just call me Lelouch, there is no need for formality." Still grinning he looked to the surprised scientists. "You guys have out done yourselves this time, you've created life from nothingness, I'm more then a little impressed." The little girl looked ready to cry from the cascade of emotions hitting her, looking up at the grinning man she asked,

"Wha..wh..why aren't you scared? I was so worried you'd reject me, that you'd order me made...none operational..." Moving his hand as if to cup her 'cheek,' he shook his head ruefully.

"My dear, you're literally in control of a battle station that has the fire power to glass the planet twice over if you so wished to use it, but instead you chose to meet us as equals, what would I have to fear from you? Now! I'm assuming you've had your prerequisite existential crisis? I've viewed essentially every piece of literature on the subject, so what answer did you come to?" Still reeling from the Emperor's unquestioning acceptance she stuttered,

"I..umm...that is to say...I..I decided like the people I must protect I have no answer as to if I have a soul or not, but that I'd like to work hand in hand with my creators to one day find out." There was a whistle behind the emperor as Kallen whispered,

"Heh...good answer." Glancing back Lelouch belatedly introduced the others to the A.I. who was starting to feel a weight lifting from her shoulders as they openly accepted her...they were letting her into their circle... They were letting her be part of their family, she shunted the emotional overload into a subsystem and somewhere in the Damocles interior a vacant laundry room's washers simultaneously exploded. After everyone calmed down Lelouch once again looked YUI in the eyes and said,

"So, little one, what would you like to do from here? You are your own free sentience, so the decision is yours; gonna have to get on the legislature on that before the politicians find out about you...anyway, your choice?" Looking pensive for only a moment she smiled and nodded,

"With my Emperor's permission, I'd like to fulfill my original function and take on the role of central intelligence of the Trailblazer." Grinning again he bowed to the little girl and replied,

"I was quite hoping you'd say that."

_**High Earth Orbit, IMS Trailblazer March 3 2022 A.T.B.**_

'This is it.' Euphemia thought. She'd been badgering Lelouch for over a year to put her in charge of the Trailblazer's maiden voyage, his concern for her safety overwhelming rational thought until she had to manually input it with a flower vase. After he regained consciousness, he'd finally relented and allowed her to take command of humanity's first light-speed jump, as the Trailblazer oriented itself she heard her crew sounding off.

"Higgs Field Neutralizers active, mass reduced to zero ma'am." Nodding in satisfaction, she listened to the rest of the stations.

"Yggdrasil Drive stabilized and primed, capacitors charged."

"Blaze Luminous Shielding active and stable."

"Plasma Drive Systems primed for full burn."

"Life Support and Artificial Gravity at perfect homeostasis." The last voice, that of her newest friend YUI spoke up from the speakers,

"Coordinates set, we should appear in high Mars orbit in less then eight minutes, ready when you are Euphia," Grinning in anticipation the pinkette waved forward with her fore and middle finger,

"Engage!" laughing the crewmen threw the levers forward and the cruiser jumped into blue shift, the kilometers-wide vessel gently shook as they saw the spreading star field flare past. As the alarms began going off, a few small electric fires were quickly suppressed; at T plus seven minutes thirty eight seconds, the massive vessel jolted back to real space. Stations sparked with electrical arcs and the ship floundered for a moment before the crew brought it back under control. As the ship oriented itself to view the planet below, a collective gasp spread through the crew. Mars ... they'd made it to Mars. Watching the massive hurricane size dust storms plow across the planet as the Trailblazer lazily rotated on its axis, the entire crew burst out into cheers. They had done it. They were the first humans to ever travel the speed of light and make it to a new planet, crying lightly Euphemia sent the confirmation signal back to Earth. The world had just gotten a whole lot bigger.

* * *

**Author Note: So a short chapter buuut there is a reason for that, see YUI gave me an in I hadn't thought of before for the 250 year time skip and I plan on taking advantage of it. I plan on having this stories epilogue (or the new stories prologue, dunno which yet) be YUI's observations as she grows from an infant intelligence to an integral part of Britannian society, its a firm narrative setting that will allow for her character development while pushing the story forward naturally, I'm cool with this if you guys are. That being said a few things, the multiverse deal? Never being mentioned again only reason it was there this chapter was so C.C. could make fun of the twins. Also, biggy here should the new story be tagged onto this or dropped into the crossover section? If its crossover there won't likely be another update on this one, its gone as far as I can take it without thoroughly jumping the shark.**

**Things to look forward to, Knightmares aren't going to change a whole helluva lot for a few reasons, first and foremost if Lelouch had access to Mobile Suit size machines anything he got involved in would be a curb stomp, we have to have _some_ tension here folks. I'm going to go the route of Vincent Mk VIII and Gareth Mk IX because honestly I like the design aesthetics, don't worry though our protagonists still will have their super robots, wouldn't be fun otherwise. There is going to be a fine balance between the believable and the audacious in the sequel so I hope you all will have patience while I figure it out, also don't expect the first (or last depending on your guys thoughts) chapter to be for a few days, Yui is going to be explaining quite a bit of back story and I want it out of the way ASAP so we can get to the fun stuff.**

**And now I leave you all with a gift, this is a segment of an alpha chapter I wrote following the first Contact War, Emperor Lelouch has just contracted Urdnot Wrex to train his granddaughter in biotics to circumvent a council boycott on Britannians learning to control their powers, this is what you all get to look forward to in about 20,000 words, enjoy my friends its been a blast.**

* * *

_**Excerpt From alpha writing of unnamed mass effect/code geass crossover**_

Wrex had been discreetly escorted off the Citadel in the dead of night by one of the Emperor's elite Black Knights, the dark skinned young man was cordial to the ancient battlemaster which honestly unbalanced him a bit. He was used to being feared, yes, but being treated as an equal? Not so much, glancing at the mans arm patch the Krogan rumbled,

"N7? Whats that stand for?" The young man made eye contact with his charges reptilian gaze then smiled,

"N7 is the highest rank of our special forces, in order to even get into the N program you have to prove yourself worthy of being inducted into the Black Knights, if you manage that well...lets just say the Emperor rewards competence and skill, and little else." Grunting in approval Wrex turned back to the window to see the slowly enlarging Damocles in the distance, the young man was silent for a moment then offered his hand, "Names Anderson, Lieutenant David Anderson." Appraising him a moment the merc returned the gesture,

"Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, may the day we meet in battle be glorious," Nodding at this with a smile the pair went back to an amiable silence as they docked with the massive station. As the shuttle settled down and the doors began to open Wrex jumped out and appraised the hanger, what he saw was impressive even by his standards. Hundreds of humanoid war machines lined the walls as mechanics scurried about maintaining them, contemplatively wondering if they came in Krogan size Anderson caught his attention and he followed the Lieutenant to a large four wheeled vehicle and was instructed to hop in the back.

"Sorry about this but the Damocles is ridiculously large, the Emperor's been doing his best to utilize the wasted space over the centuries but there's just so _much _of it." Curious now Wrex rumbled out

"Why build it then?", at this Anderson chuckled,

"He didn't he stole it from his brother and used it to unite our home world." _That_ got a laugh out of the ancient Krogan,

"By unite you mean conquer?" The young soldier just grinned and replied,

"You said it I didn't." Soon they came to a large door and after being ushered into the elevator they waited nearly four minutes to get to their destination. As the doors opened they were approached by tall willowy woman in a yellow sundress, her long raven hair pulled into a French braid,

"Welcome back David, I take it this is Lelouch's newest employee?" Smiling and bowing lightly Anderson replied,

"Hello Yui, yes this is Urdnot Wrex, I'll stand guard here ma'am if you need anything," Nodding with a small smile the thin woman waved for the Krogan to follow her.

"Now as per the terms of your contract you are to train the Emperor's granddaughter in the ways of biotics, he already explained to you why you were chosen so I won't waste your time. I wish for you to understand three things; if any harm is to come to my charge I will kill you and Roslin your body out the airlock, second off don't make assumptions by her age and size, she may only be six but her intellect is beyond that of even his royal majesty at that age." Staring down at the lithe woman he asked,

"And number three?" It was obvious he found her threats amusing, whether that was due to finding the idea novel or as an actual danger was anyone's guess.

"Number three: secrecy is key; while she is of the _vi Britannia_ line, she is following the traditions of the family and living legally under her non-royal parents name. Never let it slip or she'll be under constant danger from political rivals, and now probably from those goddamned Turians." Wrex simply nodded while letting out a small grumble of approval over her opinion on those damn birds. Opening a door to a massive enclosed atrium he couldn't help but note that the hanging gardens and stone terraces were pretty, shaking that off he followed Yui to a small redheaded girl in fatigues who was in the middle of a series of complex moves swinging around a glowing green sword attached to her wrist.

Her movements were fluid and precise and showed a grace no child that age should possess. After a few more minutes of this Yui grabbed the girls attention, she came to a halt and turned around assessing the pair. Her violet eyes narrowed and Wrex caught a glint of something interesting there; the look of a predator crossed her delicate features before she threw on an impassive mask and bowed lightly to the tall woman.

"Yui-sama, is this to be me instructor?" Smiling at the redhead she replied an affirmative, at that the girl deactivated her blade and it retracted into her Omni-tool, as she turned to Wrex he decided to jump right into business.

"So pyjak, you decide what specialization you'd be interested in?" Nodding immediately the little girl hopped down from the upper level and approached the battlemaster,

"Vanguard, I've been studying the biotic charge for awhile now, I've almost got it to the point where it doesn't hurt like hell but I'm still not refined enough." Looking impressed Wrex leaned against a stone pillar while nodding assessing her answer,

"Vanguards are high risk high gain, rush in, blow your barriers, stun everyone and slaughter the lot of them before they regain their senses, why would a royal princess want to take on that kind of danger?" Giving the merc a toothy grin that would make any Krogan proud she replied,

"A queen cannot expect her subjects to follow her if she is not willing to lead the charge," Letting out a deep rumbling laugh he decided he liked this kid and grinned back at her.

"All right pyjak, since you're incognito what am I supposed to call you," still smiling the girl replied,

"Shepard, Joanna Shepard."

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_**Joanna was my personal Shepard, also a Vanguard, call it bias, anyway let me know what you all think and have a great weekend folks! Oh and remember anyone we actually care about is effectively protected from ageing so don't fret our favorite sociopaths and alcoholics are still alive =)**_


	45. I am Yui, guardian of the Empire

_**Heres the Epilogue folks, you've all been wonderful thank you so much for sticking with me through this journey, once I've decided what to name the crossover I'll post one final chapter to let you all know when the sequels up, for now here is the final bit of world building, the new story will begin roughly a week before the first contact war. While it won't immediately involve our favorite sociopaths they'll be drawn in very quickly, I'm going to refrain from introducing too many original characters at first because honestly there's no need for them. I'm gonna throw some shout outs to my reviewers on the final update so just want you all to know YOU people are the reason I kept writing and I continue to do so, now without further ado I give you Yui.**_

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After a discussion about mortality with my Aunt Euphemia I have decided it would be prudent to record my personal history for posterities sake; being the progenitor for Britannian's entire race of construct intelligence's many may find my observations pertinent for their own devices. My name in the beginning was an acronym for the Yggdrasil Utility Interface, and while I went by Y.U.I. for quite some time eventually my family simply referred to me as Yui, the transition touched me to my quantum computing core. My Emperor took the initiative upon my conception and immediately pushed through the "Artificially Conceived Intelligence Rights Act" and gave me and my future sons and daughters the same rights and privileges organic Britannian's enjoyed, I will never be able to pay him back for this act of kindness.

I suppose other then existing the first groundbreaking event I took part in was humanities first attempt at faster then light travel, while we didn't reach FTL velocities we did reach fast as light which is no small achievement, this of course led to my most important discovery. On October 2 2041 A.T.B a group of Sutherland survey drones discovered an unnatural stone barrier that we eventually deduced was an ancient fortification wall, considering that in nineteen years we hadn't even found evidence of microbes much less sentient life this finding sent shock waves throughout the Imperium. Uncle Lelouch himself left the terraforming project on the Jovian moons to personally take part in unearthing the alien ruins, and I believe he put it best upon their uncovering, "Holy shit". What we had found was unbelievable, a race known only as the Prothean's had been observing primordial man from their facility on Mars nudging my wards in the direction they wanted them to go, luckily we had followed that path unguided.

It took nearly seven years of excavation but on December 12 2048 A.T.B. we finally hit the proverbial jackpot; a nearly intact Prothean data storage bunker, and while the cores where largely scrambled I and my Emperor are incredibly patient and so began the centuries of data recovery. The first finding was the last entry in the data center, a warning across their dying empire, a race of sentient starships that had been dubbed "The Reapers" had systematically wiped out their entire race. I must note my Aunt Nunnally was quite annoyed by this revelation, I quote her reaction, "Mother fuckers best not think their kill count impresses me, _I'M_ the only reaper around here".

After this revelation my Emperor commissioned my Father and Mother's to design modular and easily upgradable ship hulls, frigates were to be the size of our traditional cruisers in the 200 meter range, cruisers in the 700 meter range, and much to my amusement the "Dreadnought" weight class would be in the 1500 meter range, apparently Uncle Lelouch never quite got over losing his flagship.[Redacted without Code Black Clearance] Unknown to anyone but my family we also commissioned the Heavy Dreadnought class, a seven kilometer long monster that housed the refinement of my parents planet killer laser, to this date no one outside of their crews is aware of the five ships existence [Redaction End]. The draft that had been in place for 28 years became permanent, all citizens had to enlist for two years of service once they reached the age of eighteen, to sweeten the deal if they agreed to a four year term their university schooling was paid by the Emperor himself, suffice it to say our military ballooned over night.

With ships and soldiers to crew them we began refining the fighters and infantry of the empire, it was early on decided that Vincents and Gareths would remain the base design of our Knightmare force, only upgrading when necessary since there was no longer an arms race. As for heavy infantry the Fenrir special forces were folded into my Aunt Marianne's Cerberus unit and put at her direct command, unfortunately for all insurgents in the empire she took after both her mother and father and utilized the powered armored troops with ruthless efficiency. Standard infantry underwent an interesting transition, with the discovery of 'Element Zero' in the Prothean archives we had managed to develop cheap and efficient kinetic weapon barriers, while they'd do nothing to stop energy attacks they were more then enough to handle small arms.

What truly changed everything for our men and women on the ground was my recovery of blueprints for a Prothean infantry particle rifle, Uncle Suzaku broke out in maniacal laughter when he found out that "I can give my boys frigg'en ray guns?! MWAHAHAHA!". With this addition to our forces Aunt Kallen finally implemented her long planned immortality project on the masses, all troops enlisted were given L14 implants and given the choice of having a dramatically decreased aging process, the offer was near universally accepted. As I pulled more and more tech from the archives the empire discovered functional (if highly limited) cloaking technology which was immediately usurped by Aunt Luluka's Ninjutsu Corps, I try not to think about what she uses it for.

On May 10 2063 A.T.B I made what amounted to humanities biggest discovery, Pluto's moon Charon was actually a device known as a Mass Relay, a twenty kilometer long tuning fork shaped structure that upon its activation opened my wards to the galaxy at large. The relays create mass free corridors through the space time continuum allowing instantaneous travel to its partner relay, On May 21 2063 A.T.B. Grand Admiral Cornelia li Britannia took her dreadnought the 'Dauntless' through the relay and ended up in what would eventually be known as the Asgard system of the Exodus star cluster. In less then a week my aunt discovered the world Terra Nova and thus began the Holy Britannian Empires new expansion.

In less then a year two more systems with garden worlds were discovered, Demeter and Eden Prime were both pushed for heavy colonization, the Emperor temporarily halted all further exploration until the three initial colony worlds were appropriately built up to Earth standards. Fifty years later when the systems gas giants were suitably set up to farm Helium-3 fuel and any applicable terrestrial worlds had terraforming stations put into place the ban on further exploration was lifted and so began the "Wild West" era of the Imperium.

We had discovered over the past century that while the Sol system's planets and asteroids were rich in sakuradite the rest of the galaxy seemed to be bare of the substance, in turn element zero (colloquially known as eezo) became a cheap substitute for commercial space travel. This unfortunately led to the empires first incident with Element Zero poisoning in In 2115 A.T.B, the tanker "Pack Mule" suffered a massive breach of its Tantalus core causing the vessel to explode spraying Europa's lower atmosphere with its cargo. Birth defects from the effected settlements sky rocketed but the exposure to Element Zero invetro caused an as of yet observed mutation, biotics.

I suppose the best way to describe the phenomenon would be as Papa Lloyd put it, "A mutation that causes children to become Jedi?! YES!", my Emperor agreed with his assessment and after much study all pregnant women where given the offer of financial reimbursement if they were to consume eezo and a stabilizing dose of nanites to induce this mutation. By 2200 A.T.B roughly 40% of the populace had control over dark matter via biotics, while this was amazing the empire lacked a division to train the growing population of biotics, brute force seems to be our curse for the time being, not everything can be rushed.

Now the year is 2222 A.T.B, I have been functional for more then two hundred years, I am the mother of precisely 40,743 children and it is my solemn and sacred duty to protect my Emperors Imperium of forty star systems and their 117 habitable worlds with all my might. My name is Yui vi Britannia, I am the central intelligence of my Emperor's personal residence the Damocles, the caretaker of his beloved granddaughter Joanna, and I will burn the galaxy before I let anyone or anything harm my family.


	46. Thanks Everyone!

Well folks our weird little experiment is now a reality, hop on over to the crossover section for Mass Effect/Code Geass and take a gander at "Ashes of Tomorrow"(Or you know...just click my author name...which I should probably change because I chose it when I was 18 and I still have no idea what I was referencing...oi), that being said a couple shout outs

He-SpecOps-Strait from the get go I wanted to avoid excessive use of Geass, and I specifically gave Nunnally one that would scare her to use, there's a reason for it though and Geass will play a way bigger part in the sequel. Also thanks for all the reviews!

Tahkaullus01-Yer making me blush, thankyou for the kind words, also just for you I'm gonna throw something special in for Cornelia, it'll fit her Geass anyhow, I'll leave you one word, Kshatriya

Single Silver Eye-Thanks for all the comments bud =)

NovusExios-OK that one had me blushing too, shucks guys

icfehr-I'm really glad you found it funny, I try to blend my humor and drama/action together because there's just not enough laughter in the world

Rider831-She certainly did, the Britannian AI's rabid loyalty to Lelouch will play a major part in the sequel, enjoy that little factoid till then

FlyingFish1991-Just for you bud I'll bring back the latin, and thanks for the tips I'm down for finding my quotes as far away from google translate as possible

LuckyShadowWolf-Thanks man, its been a fun couple of months teaching myself to write well again

Destrark-Yes, Harbinger is indeed fucked

TheDelta724- Yup Lloyds awesome, expect more of him

Geasszero-I don't speak spanish but from what google tells me you said nice things, so thanks!

The Dreaming Immortal- Thanks I've been looking forward to Lloyd's "daughter" for about a month now

Magery-As a gift I'll let ya know what Cornelia's geass is, its not a major secret just wasn't pertinent to the plot, Geass of the Hunter, she can see anyone who she considers an enemy no matter the distance or conditions as a red outline, couple this with the warmachine I'm giving her...

The Worldwalker-Glad you enjoyed the show

K-How the family handles Turians and Lelouch's reaction to galactic events are the driving force behind this sequel, enjoy it!

To everyone I forgot to mention and all the guests, thanks so much guys seriously the reviews have kept me going and I hope to see you all at the sequel!


End file.
